roTH] GAMES, SPORTS, AND AMUSEMENTS 487 
was afraid that Vulture’s daughter might find out that it was not 
he, but all the other folk who were building her father’s house, 
so he told the black witches (Crotophaga major) to keep in the 
bushes on the edge of the clearing, and to sing out directly they 
saw her coming each day with food and drink for him. And as 
she daily came to inspect the work and report to her father she, of 
course, thought that only he by himself alone was building the 
house, and said how very clever he was. When completed she told 
her father: “ Your house is finished. Come and see it.” ‘ Not yet,” 
he said, “I must have a new bench made first, and tell your man 
he must make it of stone and that he must carve my head on it.” 
When she told this to Maichoppa he said: “ What is your father like? 
I can not cut his head on the bench unless I see him first.” This, 
of course, could never be, because Vulture only comes out in the 
middle of the night. Maichoppa was therefore again at a loss as to 
what to do, when Spider came along and offered to help him. She 
spun a cotton under Vulture’s roof, and coming at night for Mai- 
choppa, led him over many, many rocks and then down into a:big 
cavern. Here he caught hold of the net (web) which Spider had 
spun, and eased himself. The dung fell on top of Vulture’s head, 
and he shouted, “ Daughter! bring me a light quickly. Something 
stinking has fallen on my head. Let me see what it is.” The girl 
brings the light, and Maichoppa has a good look at Vulture, and sees 
what his two heads are like. But, although he now has a good idea 
of the face, he is again at a loss as to what to do, because he certainly 
does not know how to carve or hew stone. The turé-turé (a savanna 
bird) and the wood ants come to his assistance; they know very well 
how to cut into anything hard. So these two carve the stone bench 
out of the rocks and put Vulture’s head at either end of it. More 
than this, they talk to the bench when completed and tell it to throw 
over and crush the Vulture when he starts to sit on it. This it does, 
and there is an end to Vulture. His daughter is now very sorry and 
angry, and she sends the Karaka bird (the same noted in sec. 599) 
to go fetch Maichoppa, but he manages to escape it. He gets into 
the kingfisher’s house, but as fast as the Karaka follows him at 
the front door he gets out at the back. And thus from house to house 
he manages to strike the home of friend Spider, who hides him under 
the cotton that she is spinning. When, therefore, the Karaka comes 
along and wants to search her place, Spider says, “ No. You musn’t 
upset my cotton. I have just been sorting it. Maichoppa is not 
here.” Now, the question was, How must he get down to ground once 
more? And again Spider befriended him. She told him she would 
spin a line, and he must catch hold of it, shut his eyes, and when he 
got to ground he must shake it and let go, and she would pull it up 
