THE HISTORY OF FIRE

Earlier, no fire was found in the earth. Humans had nothing to prevent their bodies from cold weather and always ate raw food. As soon as the sun set, it went dark everywhere. And that was the time when humans were living in genuine hardship.

Humans realized that under the earth, where the bottom of the hell was, existed as much fire as they needed, but the devil had carefully preserved it from being stolen - even a small sheet of flame could not be taken.

Any person who tried going for fire was never back. They thought that, "Although we're the ones who govern this earth, we have to realize that some creatures will also have capacity, strength and talent to accomplish a task."

"So, we should send creatures to the hell because they may be able to get fire. When possible, we'll award them a special present so that they'll work harder.", Then the announcement was everywhere. It said if any creature was able to get fire to the earth, it would gain food and drink from every home of humans.

The successful creature and its relatives could get as much food and drink as they wished without thanks until the end of their generation. Since the award was very attractive, all creatures took it into account.

The braver creatures gave it a try, but they were all dead. "We don't need fire!" said a coward creature. "It must be humans who go for it. It's great that they promise to give food to us and our relatives. But we're not sure if we can live until we have children."

Without a spider in that time, we may have kept our bodies warm in the sunlight, or eaten raw food. Humans are always unfair to spiders. In fact the spider is a smart creature with master legs; particularly it has great perseverance.

The spider started weaving a small, but strong web from the land surface to the earth's core. It took much time to make this rope-like web, but the spider could do it. After that, the spider tied a rock at the entrance to the hell with one end of the rope and dropped the other end to the bottom of hell. Then the spider hid at a corner until the devil stood with his back to it.

As soon as the devil did, the spider rushed to grasp a piece of ember, and scuttled upward on its web. Because of the long web, the heavy piece of ember and his fastest moving run, the spider arrived at the land exhausted. "Humans have had no fire for ages, and it doesn't matter if! could stay here for a brief while to take a short rest."

The spider kept the ember in a hole on the land and took a sleep nearby. When it was asleep, the ember gradually became ash. Meanwhile, a fly coming around could smell something strange. It was the smoke from the first fire in the earth. Curious, the fly went to the site the smoke was from and discovered the emberand the sleeping spider.

"That's a priceless ember!" thought the fly. "The spider is unable to preserve the ember and cast it aside. I must take this ember to humans because they know how to take care of it."Then the fly quickly took the ember to humans.

"Thank you!" said the human. "You've helped us a lot. You'll be given as many awards as you want. From now on, you and your relatives could go to eat food at every home of humans in the earth. Without thanks, you're allowed to eat and drink at any home of humans until the end of your generation."

When waking up, the spider rushed to take the ember to humans, but it disappeared. The spider asked everyone who went by. Eventually, the spider discovered that the fly was brave to have brought the ember from the hell to humans. "That's not true!"yelled the spider disappointingly. "The fly is a thief I was the one who got the ember from the hell. See my black burnt web. It is the proof."

The spider yelled loudly, but no one believed it. "Now fire exists," replied the fly, "so anyone can burn a rope to prove that they've been from the hell. That's ridiculous! What a proof!" Realizing that it was nothing to insist, the spider had to do something to take its revenge on the fly.

The spider spun its web across the fly's way. And whenever any fly was trapped in the web, it would be at once eaten by the spider. Previously the spider ate only nectar, but it has eaten flies ever since.

Flies, on the other hand, still take their chance of earning the stolen award. They go to eat food at every home of humans who live in the earth. Without thanks, flies eat and drink at every home.

- The END -