They liked to play with fire. When the other animals begged for fire they just snapped back, �Eat you�re food raw!!!!�.

In a nearby tree there lived a woodpecker. The woodpecker never had light in the dark, nor warmth in the cold and she had to eat her meat raw.

One day the woodpecker decided to ask and beg the black panthers for fire.� Please, please can I have some fire?� begged the woodpecker.

� No you shall not have the fire we own,� snapped one of the panthers. So the woodpecker flew back up in to her tree.

Time passed. The woodpecker caught her food, eating it raw but always watching, waiting, waiting, watching for the right moment.

Then one afternoon��.. All the black panthers yawned so loudly that the whole jungle shook.

�Now�s my chance,� thought woodpecker. She swooped down on the fire sticks, grabbed them up in her claws and flew back up into the air. �Now I shall give fire to the people,� thought woodpecker feeling proud, and she flew around the country putting fire into the heart of every tree.

From that day on, people could make fire using dry sticks and logs from a tree. Also they could cook their food and keep warm.

Then woodpecker did a funny little dance and put the fire sticks into her tail. She became a proper woodpecker. Now woodpecker flew back to the panthers. �You must stay on the forest floor and not climb trees to where I live or we will drive you out of the forest,� woodpecker told them. And to this day panthers don�t climb trees. Their fire has gone now, but they still seem to say, �Were boss . . . were boss �.

Woodpecker? She live�s high in the sky and doesn�t have to eat her food raw any more.