Some old men say that the Kingfisher was meant in the beginning to be a water bird, but as he had not been given either web feet or a good bill he could not make a living.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The animals held a council over it and decided to make him a bill like a long sharp awl for a fish-gig (fish-spear). So they made him a fish-gig and fastened it on in front of his mouth. He flew to the top of a tree, sailed out and darted down into the water, and came up with a fish on his gig. And he has been the best “gigger” ever since.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some others say it was this way: A Blacksnake found a Yellow hammer’s nest in a hollow tree, and after swallowing the young birds, coiled up to sleep in the nest, where the mother bird found him when she came home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She went for help to the Little People, who sent her to the Kingfisher. He came, and after flying back and forth past the hole a few times, made one dart at the snake and pulled him out dead. When they looked they found a hole in the snake’s head where the Kingfisher had pierced it with a slender tug\u00e4l\u00fb’n\u00e4 fish, which he carried in his bill like a lance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
From this the Little People concluded that he would make a first-class “gigger” if he only had the right spear, so they gave him his long bill as a reward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n