Other fire mythology

aboriginal legends and methods
I was having a look at some legends about fire in indigenous australian cultures.
Fire had many practical uses in managing the landscape (burning off scrub to stop bad fires) as well as a method of hunting. Smoke is used in some ceremonies to keep the spirits away.
There are also particular fire sticks used to start the fires..

here are two dreamtime stories involving fire

How The Sun Was Made

For a long time there was no sun, only a moon and stars. That was before there were men on the earth, only birds and beasts, all of which were many sizes larger than they are now.

One day Dinewan the emu and Brolga the native companion were on a large plain near the Murrumbidgee. There they were, quarrelling and fighting. Brolga, in her rage, rushed to the nest of Dinewan and seized from it one of the huge eggs, which she threw with all her force up to the sky. There it broke on a heap of firewood, which burst into flame as the yellow yolk spilled all over it, and lit up the world below to the astonishment of every creature on it. They had been used to the semi-darkness and were dazzled by such brightness.

A good spirit who lived in the sky saw how bright and beautiful the earth looked when lit up by this blaze. He thought it would be a good thing to make a fire every day, and from that time he has done so. All night he and his attendant spirits collect wood and heap it up. When the heap is nearly big enough they send out the morning star to warn those on earth that the fire will soon be lit.

The spirits, however, found this warning was not sufficient, for those who slept saw it not. Then the spirits thought someone should make some noise at dawn to herald the coming of the sun and waken the sleepers. But for a long time they could not decide to whom should be given this office.

At last one evening they heard the laughter of Goo-goor-gaga, the laughing jackass, ringing through the air. "That is the noise we want," they said.

Then they told Goo-goor-gaga that, as the morning star faded and the day dawned, he was every morning to laugh his loudest, that his laughter might awaken all sleepers before sunrise. If he would not agree to do this, then no more would they light the sun-fire, but let the earth be ever in twilight again.

But Goo-goor-gaga saved the light for the world.

He agreed to laugh his loudest at every dawn of every day, and so he has done ever since, making the air ring with his loud cackling, "Goo goor gaga, goo goor gaga, goo goor gaga."

When the spirits first light the fire it does not throw out much heat. But by the middle of the day, when the whole heap of firewood is in a blaze, the heat is fierce. After that it begins to die gradually away until, at sunset, only red embers are left. They quickly die out, except a few the spirits cover up with clouds and save to light the heap of wood they get ready for the next day.

Children are not allowed to imitate the laughter of Goo-goor-gaga, lest he should hear them and cease his morning cry.

If children do laugh as he does, an extra tooth grows above their eye-tooth, so that they carry the mark of their mockery in punishment for it. Well the good spirits know that if ever a time comes when the Goo-goor-gagas cease laughing to herald the sun, then no more dawns will be seen in the land, and darkness will reign once more.

http://www.crystalinks.com/dreamtime.html
Crocodile took the fire stick

The crocodile took a fire stick with which to make a fire, for there was then none in the world. But every time he tried he broke the drill stick. Soon his hands were cut and bleeding and broken fire sticks lay about. Then the frilled lizard arrived. He sat down and continued work on a basket that he had started. The crocodile asked him to try making fire. The frilled lizard, who had fire sticks of his own in the basket, told the crocodile that he had been gripping the drill incorrectly, and then made fire. 'Waku (sister's son) of mine,' said the crocodile, 'it is a good thing you are my relative and it is a good thing that you made fire for us, for all people.' The crocodile took grass, lit it, and built a huge fire.

Finally, a myth from the Dalabon in Beswick Reserve shows how the crocodile selfishly guarded fire for himself only, until he was tricked by the rainbow bird who gave the fire to men.

The crocodile possessed fire sticks. The rainbow bird would ask for fire, but was knocked back every time. The rainbow bird was without fire. He had no light. He slept without a camp fire and ate his food of fish, goanna, lizards and mussels raw. The rainbow bird could not get fire because the crocodile was 'boss' for fire and would knock him back saying, 'You can't take fire!'

'What am I to do for men? Are they to eat raw food?'

'They can eat it raw. I won't give you fire sticks!'

The crocodile had fire. No man made it. The crocodile had had fire from a long time ago. Then the rainbow bird put fire everywhere. Every tree has fire inside now. It was the rainbow bird who put fire inside.

The rainbow bird spoke. 'Wirid, wirid, wirid!' He climbed into a tree, a dry place, a dry tree. Down he came, like a jet plane, to snatch the fire sticks, but the crocodile had them clutched to his breast. Again and again the rainbow bird tried.

'You eat raw food,' the crocodile told him. 'I'm not giving you fire.'

'I want fire. You are too mean. If I had had fire I would have given it to you. Wirid, wirid, wirid, wirid, wirid!' Down he came. He missed. He flew up. 'Wirid, wirid, wirid!' They argued again.

'I'm not giving you fire. You are only a little man. Me, I'm a big man. You eat raw food!'

The rainbow bird was angry. 'Why do you knock me back all the time?'

The crocodile turned around for a moment. Snatch! The rainbow bird had the fire stick! 'Wirid, wirid, wirid!' Away he flew.

The crocodile could do nothing. He has no wings. The rainbow bird was above. 'You can go down into the water,' he called. 'I'm going to give fire to men!' The rainbow bird put fire everywhere, in every kind of tree except the pandanus. He made light, he burned, he cooked fish, crocodile, tortoise.

The crocodile had gone down into the water. The two had separated.

'I'll be a bird. I'll go into dry places,' the rainbow bird called out. 'You can go into the water. If you go to dry places you might die. I'll stay on top.'

The rainbow bird put the fire sticks in his behind. They stick out from there now. That was a long time ago.

Story courtesy of Australian Dreaming: 40 000 Years of Aboriginal History (1980) comp. Jennifer Isaacs, Lansdome Press, Sydney, NSW, p. 106