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A Story about Fire The Gift from the Ancestors

Story about fire

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Page 1: Story about fire

A Story about Fire

The Gift from theAncestors

Page 2: Story about fire

Before the MapucheNative Americans from

South America discovered how to make

fire, they lived in mountain caves which

they called “stone houses.”

Page 3: Story about fire

Scared of the volcanic eruptions and earthquakes, they put their faith in many Gods and demons. Among these, the powerful “Cheruve”. When Cheruve was angry, it would rain stones and rivers of hot magma. Sometimes, Cheruve would come down from heaven in the shape of aerolite.

The Mapuches believed that their ancestors would come back from the dead in the luminous chest of the night sky. Each star was an ancient illuminated grandparent that hunted ostriches across the many galaxies.

Page 4: Story about fire

The Sun and the Moon gave life to Earth like the good Gods that they were. They called the Sun and The Moon, Father and Mother. Every time the Sun came out, they would greet it.

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The Moon, since it appeared in full every 28 days, it divided time in months.

Since they did not have fire, they would devoure their aliments raw, to protect themselves from the cold weather, they would cuddle with their animals at night.

Also, they saw darkness as a sign of sickness and death and because of that, they were terrified of the dark.

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In one of those mountain caves, there used to live a family: Caleu, the father, Mallen, the mother, and Lican, the daughter. One nigtht, Caleu dared to look at the sky full of his ancestors and saw a new sign, something strange at the horizon: an enormous star with a shiny, gold, glow around it.

Caleu was worried and did not say anything to his wife nor to the other indianswho lived in nearby caves.

That light resembled a volcan and the thought to himself “will this bring disasters? Burn the forests?” Even though Caleu did not say anything, it did not take long for the other indians to notice the light in the sky. They met several times to discuss what this could possibly mean.

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The summer wasreaching its end andthe women went upto the forests to lookfor food. Mallen andher daughter wentup as well.

- “We will bring pinetus and walnuts” said Mallen. “We will bring roots and cucumbers” said Lican. - Come back before nightfall” said Caleu.- “If nightfall is upon us, we'll take refuge in one of the caves of the forest” said Mallen.

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Women would carry knitted baskets to the forest. It looked like a reception, with everyone talking and laughing.

Up in the mountain were gigantic araucarians that revelead tons of pinenuts. The walnuts were in abundance too.

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The women got distracted at the mountain and nightfall was upon them. They got scared, dropped their baskets, grabbed their children and wanted to go back down.

“We won't have enough time to go down before nightfall!” -Mallen said.

“What will we do then?” said grandma Collalla, the bravest one.

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- “I know a cave nearby where we could hide” said Mallen.Mallen guided the women through a rocky passage that led to the cave. Night had fallen. - - They saw the dark sky and the strange star. - Collalla got really scared, “this star will tell us a sign about our ancestors” she said. - Little Lican hid under her mother. The other kids did the same. - “Let's go in the cave! We will sleep together and that way we won't be afraid” Said Mallen.

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Collalla was a very wise woman... she had seen many disasters in her lifetime – volcanos, mountains falling apart...

Once they entered the cave, a big shake was felt that made them start praying to the Sun and the Moon.Rocks started falling inside the cave. Strong, scary sounds were heard.

After the earthquake passed, the mountain kept shaking like the body of a nervous animal.

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The women checked on their children to make sure they were okay. Out of a sudden the saw rocks falling right at the entrance to the cave... as the rocks clashed with each other, sparks would appear.

“Look!” yelled Collallla. “The rocks give light!” “Our ancestors are sending us this gift!”

Like fireflies, as the rocks fell down the sparks made a dry grass light up. The fire illuminated the dark night and the women calmed down as they saw the light.

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“The strange star sent us this gift so that we would not be afraid of the dark” said grandma Collalla.

Everyone was smiling, happy, clapping in honor of the fire.

The silently stared the fire as if it was the Sun God himself.

They sat down in front of the fire and listened to the grass burn itself as if it was some sort of exotic music.

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Later on, the men joined the women, crossing the dark, foggy woods.

Caleu got closed to the fire and took a branch that was lit up the rest of them imitated them and the walked down with the fire until they all got back to their houses.

As they walked down they lit up other branches to guide themselves.

Page 15: Story about fire

The next day, they heard the story of how they fire started from the woman, so the indianswent back up to pick up the stones and as they rubbed them against each other, next to dry branches, they succeeded in litting up a fire.

They discovered how to make fire. Ever since then the Mapuche indians used fire to lit up their nights and cook their food.