NELSON] THE RAVEN, THE WHALE, AND THE MINK 4G5 



when Raven saw the open mouth he flew straight down tne whale s 

 throat. The whale closed its mouth and went down again, while Raven 

 stood looking about, finding himself at the entrance of a fine room, at 

 one end of which burned a lamp. He went in and was surprised to 

 see a very beautiful young woman sitting there. The place was clean 

 and dry, the roof being supported by the whale s spine, while its ribs 

 formed the walls. From a tube that extended along the whale s back 

 bone, oil was dropping slowly into the lamp. When Raven stepped in 

 the woman started up and cried out, &quot; How came you here? You are 

 the first man who ever came in here.&quot; Raven told how he came there, 

 and she asked him to be seated on the other side of the room. This 

 woman was the shade or inua of the whale, which was a female. Then 

 she prepared him food, giving him some berries and oil, at the same 

 time telling him that she had gathered the berries the year before. 

 For four days Eaven stayed there as the guest of the inua, and con 

 tinually wondered what the tube was that ran along the roof of the 

 house. Each time the woman left the room she told him that he must 

 not touch it. At last, when she left the room again, he went to the 

 lamp, and holding out his claw caught a large drop of the oil and licked 

 it with his tongue. It tasted so sweet that he began to catch and 

 eat other drops as fast as they fell. This soon became too slow for 

 him, so he reached up and tore a piece from the side of the tube and 

 ate it. As soon as this was done a great rush of oil poured into the 

 room, extinguishing the light, while the room itself began to roll wildly 

 about. This continued for four days and Raven was nearly dead from 

 weariness and the bruises which he had received. Then the room 

 became still and the whale was dead, for Eaven had torn off a part of 

 one of the heart vessels. The inua never came back to the room, and 

 the whale drifted upon the shore. 



Raven now found himself a prisoner, and while trying to think of a 

 plan for escaping, heard two men talking on top of the whale, and pro 

 posing to bring all of their village mates to the place. This was done 

 very quickly, and the people soon had a hole made through the upper 

 side of the whale s body. This hole was enlarged until, watching his 

 chance while everybody was carrying a load of meat to the shore, Raven 

 flew out and alighted on the top of a hill close by without being noticed. 

 Then he remembered that he had left his fire-drill behind, and exclaimed, 

 &quot;Ah, my good fire drill; I have forgotten it.&quot; He quickly removed his 

 raven mask and coat, becoming a young man again, and started along 

 the shore toward the whale. The people on the carcass soon saw a 

 small, dark colored man in a strangely made deerskin coat coming 

 toward them, and they looked at him curiously. Raven drew near and 

 said, &quot; Ho, you have found a fine, large whale. Well, I will help you 

 cut him up.&quot; He rolled up his sleeves and set to work. Very soon a 

 man working inside the whale s body cried out, &quot;Ah, see what I have 

 found. A fire drill inside the whale.&quot; At once Raven began to roll 

 18 ETH 30 



