Bohpoli, whose name is rendered 'the Thrower,' is the little man of the Choctaw woods, standing only two or three feet tall and living among caves and thick timber. Ordinary people never saw him; he made himself known only by tossing sticks and stones or by sudden noises, and only prophets and herb-doctors claimed his acquaintance, saying he guided them in gathering and compounding their medicines. He is closely identified with Kowi Anukasha, 'the dweller in the woods,' in the widely told account in which he carries off a small boy to his cave, where three ancient white-haired spirits offer the child a knife, a bundle of poisonous plants, and a bundle of true healing herbs; the boy who reaches for the good medicine is marked to become a great doctor of his people. Bohpoli thus stands at the origin of Choctaw doctoring knowledge, a benign but formidable teacher hidden in the forest.