Long ago, a community lacked fire, while their neighbors across a river refused to share it. Despite numerous failed attempts to steal fire, a clever dog succeeded. The dog swam across the river with a black-wax candle, lit it stealthily, and returned safely, bringing fire to his people. From that day forward, they never lacked fire again.
Source
Ethnology of the Mayas of
Southern and Central British Honduras
by John Eric Thompson
Field Museum of Natural History
Anthropological Series, Pub.274, Vol.17.2
Chicago, 1930
► Themes of the story
Trickster: The dog embodies the trickster archetype, using cunning to outsmart the neighboring community and acquire fire.
Origin of Things: The narrative explains the origin of fire among the people, detailing how they came to possess it.
Cunning and Deception: The dog’s success relies on stealth and deception to achieve the goal of bringing fire to its people.
► From the same Region or People
Once upon a time the people had no fire. On the edge of the land where they lived was a big river, and across the river were folk who had fire. Nevertheless, those that had the fire refused to give any to those that had not; and, although the latter had made many attempts to steal some, these attempts always ended in failure. At last they decided to send over a dog. The dog swam across with a black-wax candle, and when no one was looking, he stole up to the fire and lit the candle. The dog raced off before he could be caught and, swimming back across the river, he brought the candle safely alight to the people. Since then they have never been without fire.
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