36 The Story of the New England Whalers 



ing to the whale began to cut it up for his sole use. 

 Later, upon observing that he had nothing in which he 

 could store the oil, he called on the Mink for help. The 

 Mink invited the "sea people," the seals, to a feast in 

 a house that he and the Raven built. When the sea 

 people came, and had filled the house, the Raven said 

 to them: 



"What a number of people! How shall I be able 

 to make a feast for all of you? But never mind; let 

 me first rub the eyes of some of you with this stuff in 

 order that you may be able to see better; it is dark in 

 here." 



"This stuff" was a ball of gum that closed the eyes 

 of the seals, effectually blinding them, whereupon the 

 Raven killed all but one, that, through an oversight, 

 escaped to the sea. 



"When he had finished Raven turned to Mink and 

 said, 'See what a lot of seals I have killed. We will 

 have plenty of oil bags now/ Then they made bags of 

 the sealskins and filled them with oil for the winter. 

 Ever since that time Raven and Mink have been friends, 

 and even to this day ravens will not eat the flesh of a 

 mink, be they ever so hungry; and the raven and the 

 mink are often found very close together on the tundras." 



These sauvage whalers were a rude people, but 

 they could look into a whale and see its inua in 



