[812]. See above, pp. [195] sqq., [230] sqq.
[813]. Rigveda, x. 95, translated by R. T. H. Griffith, Satapatha Brâhmana, translated by J. Eggeling, part v. pp. 68-74. Compare H. Oldenberg, Die Literatur des alten Indien (Stuttgart and Berlin, 1903), pp. 53-55. On the story see A. Kuhn, Herabkunft des Feuers, 2nd Ed., pp. 71 sqq.; F. Max Müller Selected Essays on Language, Religion, and Mythology (London, 1881), i. 408 sqq.; Andrew Lang, Custom and Myth (London, 1884), pp. 64 sqq.; K. F. Pischel and Geldner, Vedische Studien, i. (Stuttgart, 1889), pp. 243-295. It belongs to the group of tales which describe the marriage of a human with an animal mate, of a mortal with a fairy, and often, though not always, their unhappy parting. The story seems to have its roots in totemism. See my Totemism and Exogamy, ii. 566 sqq. It will be illustrated more at length in a later part of The Golden Bough.
[814]. Homer, Hymn to Mercury, 108-111 (where a line has been lost; see the note of Messrs. Allen and Sikes); Theophrastus, Histor. plant. v. 9. 6; id., De igne, ix. 64; Hesychius, s.v. στορεύς; Schol. on Apollonius Rhodius, Argon. i. 1184; Pliny, Nat. Hist. xvi. 208; Seneca, Nat. Quaest. ii. 22; A. Kuhn, Herabkunft des Feuers, 2nd Ed., pp. 35-41; H. Blumner, Technologie und Terminologie der Gewerbe und Künste, ii. 354-356. Theophrastus gives the name of athragene to the plant which, next to or equally with ivy, makes the best board; he compares it to a vine. Pliny (l.c.) seems to have identified it with a species of wild vine. According to Sprengel, the athragene is the Clematis cirrhosa of Linnaeus, the French clématite à vrilles. See Dioscorides, ed. C. Sprengel, vol. ii. p. 641. As to the kinds of wood employed by the Romans in kindling fire we have no certain evidence, as Pliny and Seneca may have merely copied from Theophrastus.
[815]. Pausanias, i. 31. 6, with my note.
[816]. E. H. Man, On the Aboriginal Inhabitants of the Andaman Islands (London, N.D.), p. 82. Mr. Man’s evidence is confirmed by a German traveller, Mr. Jagor, who says of the Andaman Islanders: “The fire must never go out. Here also I am again assured that the Andamanese have no means of making fire.” See Verhandlungen der Berliner Gesellschaft für Anthropologie, 1877, p. (54) (bound with Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, ix.). I regret that on this subject I did not question Mr. A. R. Brown, Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, who resided for about two years among the Andaman Islanders, studying their customs and beliefs. Mr. Brown is now (December 1910) in West Australia.
[817]. N. von Miklucho-Maclay, “Ethnologische Bemerkungen über die Papuas der Maclay-Küste in Neu-Guinea,” Natuurkundig Tijdschrift voor Nederlandsch Indie, xxxv. (1875), pp. 82, 83. Compare C. Hager, Kaiser Wilhelms-Land und der Bismarck-Archipel, p. 69; M. Krieger, Neu-Guinea, p. 153. The natives of the Maclay Coast are said to have traditions of a time when they were ignorant even of the use of fire; they ate fruits raw, which set up a disease of the gums, filling their mouths with blood; they had a special name for the disease. See N. von Miklucho-Maclay, in Verhandlungen der Berliner Gesellschaft für Anthropologie, 1882, p. (577) (bound with Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, xiv.). The reports of people living in ignorance of the use of fire have hitherto proved, on closer examination, to be fables. See E. B. Tylor, Researches into the Early History of Mankind, 3rd Ed., pp. 229 sqq. The latest repetition of the story that I know of is by an American naturalist, Mr. Titian R. Peale, who confirms the exploded statement that down to 1841 the natives of Bowditch Island had not seen fire. See The American Naturalist, xviii. (1884) pp. 229-232.
[818]. B. Hagen, Unter den Papuas (Wiesbaden, 1899), pp. 203 sq. Mr. Hagen’s account applies chiefly to the natives of Astrolabe Bay. He tells us that for the most part they now use Swedish matches.
[819]. G. Casati, Ten Years in Equatoria (London and New York, 1891), i. 157. Another writer says that these dwarfs “keep fire alight perpetually, starting it in some large tree, which goes on smouldering for months at a time” (Captain Guy Burrows, The Land of the Pigmies (London, 1898), p. 199).
[820]. F. Stuhlmann, Mit Emin Pascha ins Herz von Afrika (Berlin, 1894), pp. 451 sq.
[821]. Sir Harry H. Johnston, British Central Africa (London, 1897), p. 439; id., The Uganda Protectorate (London, 1902), ii. 540. If we may trust Diodorus Siculus (i. 13. 3), this was the origin of fire alleged by the Egyptian priests. Among the Winamwanga and Wiwa tribes of East Africa, to the south of Lake Tanganyika, “when lightning sets fire to a tree, all the fires in a village are put out, and fireplaces freshly plastered, while the head men take the fire to the chief, who prays over it. It is then sent to all his villages, the people of the villages rewarding his messengers.” See Dr. J. A. Chisholm, “Notes on the Manners and Customs of the Winamwanga and Wiwa,” Journal of the African Society, No. 36 (July 1910), p. 363. The Parsees ascribe peculiar sanctity to fire which has been obtained from a tree struck by lightning. See D. J. Karaka, History of the Modern Parsis (London, 1884), ii. 213. In Siam and Cambodia such fire is carefully preserved and used to light the funeral pyres of kings and others. See Pallegoix, Description du royaume Thai ou Siam, i. 248; J. Moura, Le Royaume du Cambodge, i. 360.