THE EXPLOITS OF THE HERO. 301 
tivity, and these pits were the places where their houses had stood. He told 
him also the story of Piuchunnuh and his people. Oankoitupeh knew all this 
before, but he asked, to hear what they would reply. He wanted to know 
the way in which this gambling was done, and his grandfather showed him. 
He wished to try his luck with Haikutwotopeh, but they earnestly warned 
him against it, and begged him with tears not to do it. But he said, “I fear 
no man. I am greater than all.” He wanted to show them the trick by 
which Haikutwotopeh had won all the tribe, but they besought him not to 
attempt it. But his mother did not, for she knew in her heart that he could 
not die, because his father had said it. 
There was an old she-devil, as tall as a great pine in the mountains, 
who could at pleasure assume the form of man or woman. She wanted to 
kill Oankoitupeh. She could, when she pleased, look young and beautiful 
as a speckled fawn. She called to him, ‘“Oankoitupeh! Oankoitupeh !” 
and lured him to the forest, though his grandfather earnestly begged him 
not to follow her. But he went with all his war-weapons (which have been 
models to the Konkau ever since), and met the old she-devil. He touched 
her, and she fell to the earth before him. She said to him, “ Poor child! 
you were born with a crooked back. I saw you; nobody helped you; 
you were born without a father. But I can straighten your back if you will 
let me.” 
There was, in the foothills near Chico, a straight, smooth rock, just 
the length of a man, which had a hole in the middle of it, made by pound- 
ing acorns in it, This rock can be seen here to this day. She led him to 
it, and told him to lay off his bow and arrows, his sling, spear, belt, and 
feathers. He did so. Then be went a little aside, knelt down by a rock, 
and prayed; and he listened for the great voice of Nature to tell him what 
to do. The voice told him that she meant to kill him, but that he must do 
as she bade him, and have an eye in his back to put him on his guard. 
He came back, and lay down on the rock face upward; but the old hag 
told him he must lie down back upward. This he did, and then she came 
and stood over him, and lifted a stone far up almost to the sky, and brought 
it down as if to crush him with one tremendous blow. He did not wince. 
A second time she lifted the great stone into the sky, but again he did not 
