The first fireplace was hidden, a tale from the Australian desert says. Two snakes had discovered fire by accident, and since that moment they had been hiding in the forest every time they wanted to cook. The snakes did not want to share such a fabulous secret with anyone else.

Starting a fire had been something known to all animals before. The water rat had taught them how to do it, by rubbing two sticks. The animals had been lazy however, starting always each new fire from another one. That was the custom until the moment in which a great storm extinguished all the existing fires. By then animals, even the water rat, had forgotten how to produce fire.

The snakes were married to the hawk, who provided them with raw meat. The hawk became suspicious that they knew the secret of fire after they stopped eating in his presence. He was not able to get them to confess however, so he asked other animals in the kingdom to try to unveil their secret.

One by one animals attempted to get to the snakes' fireplace but failed, until the lizard suggested that only he and a few of the best hunters should try. As he approached the place, the lizard began crawling flat on his stomach. He stopped sometimes and raised one hand, and later the other, in that way giving the hunting animals behind signs to stop or continue.

The lizard succeeded in getting to the snakes' fireplace, and even managed to light a dry stick from it. Seeing this, the snakes became very angry. In the rush of passing the flaming stick to the hunters a big fire started. It ended up burning the entire forest.

As a consequence of the fire, the whole landscape around became a desert. This is a desert in which the lizard crawls, stops, raises one hand and then raises the other. That way he recalls his brief moment of success. The angry snake is always biting, killing other animals. As for the rest of the kingdom, not one single animal has or knows how to start a fireplace anymore.