NELSON] THE RAVEN, THE WHALE, AND THE MINK 465 
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, ‘‘ How came you here? You are 
the first man who ever came in here.” Rayen 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 Raven 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 Raven had torn off a part of 
one of the heart vessels. The inwa 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, 
“Ah, my good fire drill; Ihave forgotten it.” 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, ‘Ho, you have found a fine, large whale. Well, I will help you 
cut him up.” He rolled up his sleeves and set to work. Very soon a 
man working inside the whale’s body eried out, “Ah, see what I have 
found. A fire-drill inside the whale.” At once Raven began to roll 
18 EtH—=80 
