Fire in the Dragon

The hero, after he has been swallowed by a fish or some other monster frequently associated with water, cuts the animal's heart out or eats it from the inside. In a previous publication I have regarded this as a “body destruction phantasy” (M. Klein), the hero was interpreted as the child and the dragon as the mother. 1)

There is no doubt that this is correct, but it is not a complete interpretation.

In a Winnebago myth we are told how Hare gathered some flint arrow points and then went on the top of the hill and sang:

Thus he sang. Then the thing came at him as fast as a flame shoots up.“

The rest of the story is the typical swallowed hero myth. What interests us here is the flame. It is really one of the attributes of the hero, not of the swallowing monster.

In the Yuma story of Kokomat the creator god is dead and has to be cremated. The people send Cayote for fire. They know that he wants to eat Kokomat's heart, so they think they will get him out of the way and cremate the Creator in his absence. They make fire with a fire drill. But Cayote catches th Sun's fire on his tail and is back again on time to devour also Kokomat's heart. 3) Frobenius emphasizes these two traits; the swallowed hero either cuts or eats the monster's heart or destroys it by fire he has lit in the dragon's inside. 4)

In a Tsimshian myth the Elk straddles the river and kills people by swallowing them. Canoes pass through the body but the crew is retained and killed. Leesa goes down