amantha, 'fire-stick') the meaning of 'foresighted,' with the word for
prudent foresight, [Greek]. This, roughly stated, is the view of Kuhn.
{195a} Mr. Max Muller concludes that Prometheus, the producer of fire,
is also the fire-god, a representative of Agni, and necessarily 'of the
inevitable Dawn'--'of Agni as the deus matutinus, a frequent character of
the Vedic Agni, the Agni aushasa, or the daybreak' (ii. 813).

But Mr. Max Muller does not say one word about Prometheus as the Fire-
stealer. Now, that he _stole_ fire is of the essence of his myth; and
this myth of the original procuring of fire by theft occurs all over the
world. As Australian and American savages cannot conceivably have
derived the myth of fire-stealing from the root manth and its double
sense of stealing and rubbing, there must be some other explanation. But
this fact could not occur to comparative mythologists who did not
compare, probably did not even know, similar myths wherever found.

Savage Myths of Fire-stealing

In La Mythologie (pp. 185-195) I have put together a small collection of
savage myths of the theft of fire. {195b} Our text is the line of Hesiod
(Theogony, 566), 'Prometheus _stole_ the far-seen ray of unwearied fire
in a hollow stalk of fennel.' The same stalk is still used in the Greek
isles for carrying fire, as it was of old--whence no doubt this feature
of the myth. {195c} How did Prometheus steal fire? Some say from the
altar of Zeus, others that he lit his rod at the sun. {196a} The
Australians have the same fable; fire was obtained by a black fellow who
climbed by a rope to the sun. Again, in Australia fire was the
possession of two women alone. A man induced them to turn their backs,
and stole fire. A very curious version of the myth occurs in an
excellent book by Mrs. Langloh Parker. {196b} There was no fire when
Rootoolgar, the crane, married Gooner, the kangaroo rat. Rootoolgar,
idly rubbing two sticks together, discovered the art of fire-making.
'This we will keep secret,' they said, 'from all the tribes.' A fire-
stick they carried about in their comebee. The tribes of the Bush
discovered the secret, and the fire-stick was stolen by Reeargar, the
hawk. We shall be told, of course, that the hawk is the lightning, or
the Dawn. But in this savage Jungle Book all the characters are animals,
and Reeargar is no more the Dawn than is the kangaroo rat. In savage
myths animals, not men, play the le