1) Before discovering fire, the Mapuche people of South America lived in mountain caves and ate raw food for protection from the cold. They were afraid of the dark. 2) One night, a family saw a strange bright star and an earthquake later trapped some women and children in a cave. Sparks from falling rocks in the cave started a fire that illuminated the dark cave. 3) The women's discovery of fire from the rocks taught the other Mapuche how to make fire by rubbing stones together, allowing them to light their nights and cook food. They believed the bright star had sent them the gift of fire.

1. A Story about Fire
The Gift from the
Ancestors

2. Before the Mapuche
Native Americans from
South America
discovered how to make
fire, they lived in
mountain caves which
they called “stone
houses.”

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. 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.

6. 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 indians
who 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.

7. The summer was
reaching its end and
the women went up
to the forests to look
for food. Mallen and
her daughter went
up 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.

8. 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.

9. 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.

10. - “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.

11. 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.

12. 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.

13. “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.

14. 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.

15. The next day, they heard the story of how they fire started from the woman, so the indians
went 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.