The aborigines of Australia rival the Fuegians alike in physical and intellectual degradation; but, like them also, have achieved or perpetuated the discovery which lies at the very foundation of all possible civilisation. According to the inconsequential account furnished by a native Australian of their first acquisition of fire:—“A long, long time ago a little bandicoot[59] was the sole owner of a fire-brand, which he cherished with the greatest jealousy. So selfish was he in the use of his prize, that he obstinately refused to share it with the other animals. So they held a general council, where it was decided that the fire must be obtained from the bandicoot either by force or strategy. The hawk and pigeon were deputed to carry out this resolution; and after vainly trying to induce the fire-owner to share its blessings with his neighbours, the pigeon, seizing, as he thought, an unguarded moment, made a dash to obtain the prize. The bandicoot saw that affairs had come to a crisis, and, in desperation, threw the fire towards the river, there to quench it for ever. But, fortunately for the black man, the sharp-eyed hawk was hovering near, and seeing the fire falling into the water, with a stroke of his wing he knocked the brand far over the stream into the long dry grass of the opposite bank, which immediately ignited, and the flames spread over the face of the country. The black man then felt the fire, and said it was good.”[60] The discovery of the art of fire-making, prefigured in this rude myth, is intimately associated in the minds of the Australian aborigines with their distinctive ideas of man. According to the mythology of the Booroung tribe, inhabiting the Mallee country, on Lake Tyrill, they were preceded on the earth by a race of Nurrumbunguttias, or old spirits, who had the knowledge of fire; but these were translated to heaven before the black man came into existence. One of them, named _War_, or the Crow,—the Australian Prometheus,—is now the star Canopus; and he it was who first brought fire back to earth, and gave it to the black men.[61] It is a noticeable fact that, while the Maoris of New Zealand use the same word, _ahi_, for fire, which under slight modifications is employed through widely severed island groups of the Pacific: different Australian tribes use distinct names for it, as _darloo_ at Moreton Bay, _koyung_ at Lake Macquarrie, and _kaubi_ at Bathurst. In the Kamilarai of Wellington Valley it is called _koyan_; while in the Wiradurei, spoken about 200 miles inland from Lake Macquarrie, it is _win_. Such diversity of names for the common acquisition proves that fire is no recent novelty derived from a single source by the savage tribes of that strange southern continent.