302 THE MAIDU. 
wince when she brought it down. <A third time she brought it down in 
earnest, but just before it reached him he turned quickly on his side, and 
the mighty stone, descending, smote on the rock close beside him with the 
noise of thunder, and splintered it into a thousand pieces. The hag was 
stricken with amazement and fear; she fell prone upon the earth. Oankoi- 
tupeh, drawing his knife of flint, with one plunge cut out her heart and 
lungs, and taking them on his spear carried them home and gave them to 
his grandfather ; but the old hag he burned. 
There was a large and fierce black eagle in that country which had 
killed many Indians in former times. Oankoitupeh wished to go and kill 
it, but his grandfather begged him with tears not to attempt it. But again 
he prayed and listened for the great voice of Nature to tell him what to do. 
Before that they had sought to snare the eagle with a net, but he always 
broke it and destroyed many Indians. Now Oankoitupeh prepared a trap, 
with which he caught him as he issued from the hole in the tree where he 
lived, and so he killed him. Then he ripped out his heart and lungs and 
carried them to his grandfather; but the body he burned, and out of the 
ashes there arose the woodpecker as we see it to-day. 
These two exploits of Oankoitupeh were received by his friends with 
unbounded joy; each time, as he returned home after it, he was welcomed 
with a dance and with songs of triumph. 
He was now ready to go on his great mission to the north, to expose 
the trick of Haikutwotopeh, and recover his grandfather's lost tribe from 
bondage. All four of his friends wished to go with him, but he said they 
could not go with him unless they first died. So they died, three of them, 
and they set out together with him, leaving the old woman behind. They 
traveled far over the earth, then waded on the bottom underneath the great 
and deep sea, then across the ice to the home of Haikutwotopeh. Haikut- 
wotopeh knew that he was come, and felt in his heart that he was greater 
than himself. He said to Oankoitupeh, ‘I felt in my heart that you had 
come. Perhaps you are greater than I.” But Oankoitupeh said, “No; I 
have done nothing great.” Kiunaddissi said, “ You won all my tribe by 
gambling, and all your land is full of people.” Haikutwotopeh answered, 
