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Old Man, also known as Napi, is a creator god and trickstermischievous figure appearing in various forms in the folktales and mythology of many different peoples figure in the mythology of the Blackfoot Indians of North America. He is said to have created the world and all the creatures in it.

To make humans, Old Man fashioned figures out of clay and breathed life into them. The first man he created was satisfied with the world, but the first woman was not. She wanted to know if people would ever die and if life would be the same forever as it was now. The question surprised Old Man, who had not really thought about whether humans would live forever.

To answer the question, Old Man threw a piece of wood into the river. If the wood floated, he said, humans would die and come back to life after four days. If it sank, they would die and never live again. The wood...