This made them feel very sad. Then one of the younger men, who was called Ab, because he was slow and lazy, like a bear, was very angry because the fire had gone out and left him cold, so he began to poke about among the ashes with a stick, and after a while, away down at the bottom of the pile, he found a bed of glowing red coals. He got some leaves and twigs and put them on the coals, and when the fire blazed up again, the cave people all shout Ai-Ai, and that became in time their word for fire. They called Ab Ai-Ab after that, because he was the one who had brought back the fire. Mother Nature, who was watching the cave people, was glad when she saw that they had saved the fire, for she was afraid she might have to make it all over again for them. But she was not satisfied. "The Rain will soon put it out," she said to the Sun, "if they do not carry it into their caves. I must teach them a lesson. But first, they must find out more about what Fire can do for them, so you had better keep on shining for a while." The cave people, when they saw that the fire was burning again, left Ai-Ab and the women to keep it blazing, while they went out to hunt for food. They did not know, then, all the wonderful things Fire was going to do for them, but they liked it because it kept them warm. There were two boys in one of the parties that went down the valley. One was called Tul, which meant quick, and the other was called Ni-Va, which meant fish, and they called him that because he was a very good swimmer. Tul and Ni-Va were not allowed to go outside the valley with the older men, but were told to search through the woods for the sweet roots of certain kinds of plants that the cave men ate, and for eggs, and the young wild birds. When Tul and Ni-Va came to the edge of the forest, they saw a great wide space which had been burned by the fire before the rain had put it out. So, being curious, they forgot all about the roots and eggs they had been sent after, and went poking about among the ashes and charred trunks of trees, to see what they could find. They had been doing this for quite a while, when Ni-Va heard Tul call to him, and ran up to see what his companion had found. There among some burnt bushes lay the body of a great bird, as large as a turkey. It had been sitting on its nest on the ground, and in trying to escape it had become entangled among some thick vines. The fire had burnt away the feathers of the bird, and left it scorched and black, and still a little warm from the bed of ashes in which it lay. [Illustration: THE FIRST COOK Ai-Ab took a large piece of the deer meat, and putting it on the end of a stick, held it over the flames of the fire.] Tul tried to lift the bird by one of its legs, but to his surprise, the leg came right off in his hand, for the body of the bird had been cooked by the fierce heat.