The invention of fire
Of course fire was not invented, but harnessing is a difficult word. Fire is as old as the earth. Obviously. Th earliest humanoids witnessed volcanoes, lightning, forest fires, spontaneous fires created by methane.
There was a family of three struggling to survive in their cave, what with the relentless cold and humidity, shortage of food in the winter months, a very long distance to walk to collect water from the river in an animal skin carrier. How they managed, when the needle had not yet been invented, is another hard-luck story which I will tell some other time. Remember that was 33 billion years ago. It was a hard life, and on average one in seven children born make it past the one-year threshold.
Hrosh, his wife Hreesh and their daughter Hoorooroo, who might have been ancestors of Khrak and Horrok (see The First Symphony), but the carved chronicles are difficult to interpret. Hoorooroo was one of twins who had survived. Sadly the other one died before anybody could give her a name. Might have been a him. Hrosh and Hreesh were worried about losing Hoorooroo, and did everything in their power to protect her, but there wasn’t much they could do apart from making mute prayers in their heads to the Thunder god. Thankfully Hreesh had good mammaries and her supply of mother’s milk was more than adequate, but the main problem during this harsh winter was keeping the child from catching a chill. The skin blankets were themselves frozen and therefore hard and difficult to use. Husband and wife would place the little nipper inside a carefully arranged miniature tent made of the skins stacked together, and place the little girl inside. They would then take turn to blow their hot breaths in it as the only means they knew, of providing some warmth to their wee lassie.
At night cold windy rain came pelting down, and God angrily roared his anger. They could not understand. Was he angry because they had let Hoorooroo’s twin die? All night long, God roared and spat ou fire at the world. Why did the same God who put fish in the river, little rabbits and boars, and berries and fungi in the forest be so cruel to them? They both thought that, but as you know real words had not been invented yet. They had sounds, and the first humanoids had slightly larger eyes which thy could move at speed, attracting immediate attention to whatever objects they had in mind. Thus a quick movement of the eye towards a berry, followed by a mock munching could mean, “give the child some berries”. This developed later into putting the fingers of one hand together and moving it quickly repeatedly towards the mouth. A gesture which has survived until now. I could tell you many more similar things but it’s the story of fire which is the subject here.
Mercifully the baby had finally fallen asleep, and they knew that her own warmth would keep her going for a while, but expected her to wake up and start crying the moment she was cold again, when they would either begin the blowing ritual again, or take her to sleep with them, their body warmth acting as a blanket.
They smelled smoke all night, and knew that lightning had struck, and that
the forest was burning. If only they knew how to make use of the heat of the burning forest! It was to Hreesh that the brainwave occurred: Go to the burning forest, collect some burning wood … but how to carry it to their cave? By gestures and grunts she tried to convey her meaning to Khrosh. Like all men, he was obstinate and did not much like to be told what to do by a woman, although there was no doubt that he loved her more than anything in the world. Still she managed to get him to come with her to the burning forest.
Now their cave was about two kilometres from the burning forest. This distance is a deduction archeologists made later. Khrosh did not take long to grasp what his wife was trying to tell him, for in those days, with the absence or dearth of words and methods of communication, telepathy worked to some extent.
Neither of them really believed that it would be possible to carry a burning branch all the way to their cave, but we have always lived in hope. So raising their heads to the god of thunder, they begged him in their minds to help them. Sadly, they had not done a quarter of the distance when, as they knew it would, their burning branched had grown cold. It was Khrosh who had the second brainwave. And it worked:
They collected smaller pieces of twigs and began by building a small hearth a short distance from the forest, left it there and went into the burning forest and each collected a couple of torch-like branches and running very fast managed to reach the hearth, and light it. Bu they knew what to do next. They got this second fire going lustily and rushed to build another hearth at about the same distance. Five such pyres were enough to enable them to get the fire into their cave. It took them nearly a whole day.
When they reached their cave, they found Hoorooroo dead!
Sorry, I mean dead asleep, snoring soundly.
