"Ouch! Ouch!" yelled the dancer, as his hump pushed through and thrust out before him. He was hump-chested now!
"There!" said the bear. "Henceforth, you'll follow your hump. You won't have to carry it on your back any more!"
While Mouwou was dealing with the cook, the little bird was furiously picking at Chonwa's swollen neck. She picked and picked until a hole was made in the skin. Immediately a snake ran out and disappeared in the grass. Mouwou turned to the princess and began to scratch her arm. Several snakes fell out and the bear killed them. Again and again she scratched, till more than twenty snakes had come out and been killed.
The princess was soon entirely well. As it was growing dark, the mother made a cozy bed of leaves and bade her good night. With a prayer for the safety of Mousan. Chonwa fell asleep.
In the morning, just before they started on their hunt, the bird took a little flight to exercise its wings. It returned with the information that the hunchback was lying not far away in much pain. Following the bird, Chonwa and the bear found the hunchback rolling on the ground, apparently too weak to stand. He thought his head had been twisted round, because he could see his hump, a thing he never could do before! He had spent the greater part of the night in rolling over and over trying to twist his head so that the back would be where the face was. When he saw the bear, he begged her to untwist him.
"I'll twist your pin-head for you, you rascal," she said, "if that is all that you want!"
So saying, with one wrench she turned his face around till he was really looking backward.
The man rose to his feet with great difficulty and proceeded to walk, but to his astonishment he walked backward. His feet went the usual way, but as his head was looking backward, he could not see where he was going, and he bumped into a tree. He tried to walk the way his nose pointed and he fell again and again. At last he gave it up and sat down.
He was more confused than ever to find himself buckling up in the way opposite to that to which he had been accustomed. Finally, down he went as his body would have it, and he found his nose against the tree instead of the back of his head. Sobbing loudly, he took his head in his hands and wept tears down the back of his neck.
"Oh, dear bear, cure me!" he moaned, "I am a miserable sinner and I deserve it all! But please give me a chance, and I shall do better in the future! Never again shall I associate with that snake woman! Never! I want to be good!" This was the very thing that the bear wanted, for it was very hard for her to seem so cruel to one in such pain.