How Raven brought fire to the Indians

How Raven brought fire to the Indians

A long time ago, when the world in the far north was still young, the nights seemed endless. Stars twinkled above the earth, waves roared in the dark water, and almost no one saw real daylight.

In those days, Raven and White Gull lived beside the Great Water. Their homes were close together. They knew every path to the sea and often met beside the boats.

White Gull owned a marvellous box that held daylight. When he needed to fly far or examine something, he lifted the lid just enough to let out a slender ray, then quickly shut the light away again.

Raven wondered about this for a long time.

"Why keep light under lock and key?" he once asked. "The sky is big, the earth is big. There would be enough light for everyone."

“It is my light,” Gull replied. “I keep it safe.”

“But it’s hard in the dark for both people and animals.”

“Let them get used to it,” Gull grumbled, shutting the box more firmly.

Raven walked away, shaking his head.

He was a notorious trickster. When requests failed, a plan was never far away.

One morning, the wind scattered dry, prickly burrs along the path to the sea. Raven saw his chance.

Soon he shouted under Gull’s window:

“Hurry up! It seems the waves are carrying away the boats!”

Gull rushed outside and stepped on several burrs. Their prickles caught in his feet, and he went back indoors crossly.

“What a nuisance! I can’t see a thing in this darkness,” he complained.

Raven followed him in.

“Let me help. Just open the box even a little, because without light I won’t be able to tell where the thorn is and where the feather is.”

Gull reluctantly lifted the lid. A thin golden ray shone in the room.

“A little more,” Raven asked. “That will make it quicker.”

Gull lifted the lid even higher.

And then a gust of wind flew into the open window. The lid jumped up, the box tipped over, and daylight rushed out.

It ran across the floor, slid over the threshold, spilled over the bank, and in an instant rose into the sky. The dark water turned blue. Sparks glittered on the snow. The distant mountains showed their peaks for the first time.

Gull fluttered about in a panic:

“Back! Back into the box!”

But the light was impossible to gather anymore. It belonged to the whole sky.

Raven gently removed the last burr from Gull’s foot.

“It seems daylight has decided it has spent long enough locked away,” he said.

Gull glared at him angrily, but even he had to admit: the world had become completely different.

The first day, Raven squinted, because everything around seemed too bright. The next day, he could already see the coast far, far away. And on the third day, he noticed a thin column of smoke behind the blue hills.

Raven jumped up.

"Smoke! So there is fire somewhere out there!"

He had heard about fire from travelers. They said that it warms in the cold, gives light at night and helps to cook food.

Raven called Robin, Mole, and Flea.

“We are going to look for fire.”

Flea brought a tiny cart.

“Climb in!”

It barely fit Flea herself.

Mole pulled his little chariot. Everyone tried to climb in, but it immediately tilted to the side.

Robin showed a light cart on high wheels. As soon as Raven stepped inside, the cart overturned, and the whole company found itself in the grass.

Raven stood up, shook off his feathers and said seriously:

“Well, one thing is clear. We need a simpler way to travel.”

And they set off on foot and took turns flying forward, guided by the smoke.

After many days, the travellers reached a land where several fires burned in the centre of a settlement. People sat around them in the cool air. The flames crackled, casting warm golden light.

Raven whispered at once:

“We must get the ember.”

Robin was the nimblest. She flew to the edge of a fire, carefully picked up a smouldering twig, and carried it towards her friends. But it was hotter than she had expected, and she had to set it down. She beat her wings to keep it glowing, but the ember went out.

A few feathers on her chest darkened a little from the heat.

“Never mind,” she said. “Now we know that fire is no toy. We must carry it carefully.”

Raven stopped to think. This time, clever tricks were no help.

Just then, they heard crying nearby. A little child playing beside the path had lost sight of their family and become frightened.

Mole noticed the child first.

“We must take this little one home.”

Raven wanted to say that they were in a hurry, but he saw how the child was trembling and nodded silently.

Together, they went back to the settlement. People were already searching, and the child’s family was deeply worried. When the child ran to them, everyone sighed with relief.

The elder of the settlement approached the travelers.

“You helped our child. How can we thank you?”

Raven looked at the fire.

“Teach us to take care of the fire. It is cold in our land, and we do not know how to rekindle it if it goes out.”

The people agreed.

The people showed them how to prepare dry tinder, preserve embers, and handle flames so that they helped rather than harmed. They also gave Raven two stones for striking sparks.

“Remember,” said the elder, “fire is powerful. Treated with respect, it is a good servant. Treated carelessly, it is dangerous.”

On the way home, Raven kept touching the bag of stones with his beak. He was proud as if he already owned the greatest treasure in the world.

When the travelers returned, everyone gathered around them.

Raven struck a spark onto the dry tinder. A wisp of smoke rose, followed by a tiny flame.

“Fire!” everyone exclaimed.

At first, Raven wanted to keep the secret to himself.

“If I alone know how to light a fire, everyone will come to me,” he thought.

But the evening grew cold. Raven saw children huddled together, old people warming their hands with their breath, and people who needed to cook food.

He remembered White Gull’s box.

Someone had once tried to lock the light away for themselves.

Raven was silent for a long time, and then he placed two stones in front of everyone.

“Look carefully. I will show you how I was taught.”

And he showed once. Then once more. And then others learned, and each taught someone else.

Since then, daylight has travelled freely across the sky, and fire has warmed many homes. The old tale remembers Raven as cunning, impatient, and sometimes overconfident, but able at last to understand one important thing:

something everyone needs should be shared, rather than kept for oneself.

May this story leave a little light in your heart ✨