HEITSI-EIBIB

HEITSI-EIBIB: Nature and Animal God.

He had a strange birth. His mother, a cow, ate some magic grass which turned out to be full of maleness. She became pregnant and soon gave birth to this fully-formed God. It's not everyone who can claim their father is a tuft of grass.

A great shape-changer himself, he became involved in animal evolution and did his bit for conservation by putting species in their right environment — taking fish out of the desert, stopping lions building nests in trees, that kind of thing. (He could tell David Attenborough a thing or two).

He is also something of a folk hero, having sorted out GA-GORIB, a nasty taunting demon who used a large pit to trap and devour animals. When HEITSI-EIBIB fell in the pit, he changed into we don't know what, but when he emerged he seemed to be licking his lips and the demon was never seen again.

Humans are his favorite animals, and he gave them lots of freedom to run wild and do their own thing. Which may have been a little over-indulgent. Now he lives in graves and caves, and can be approached when people need good luck in hunting.