; but he continually wondered
what the tube was that ran along the roof of the house. Whenever the
spirit woman left the room she said, "You must on no account touch
that tube," and that only served to make him the more curious.

On the fifth day, when she left the room, he went to the lamp and
caught a drop of the oil which he licked up with his tongue. It tasted
so sweet that he began to catch other drops as fast as they fell. This
soon became too slow to suit him, for he was hungry, 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 and put out the
light, while the room itself began to roll wildly about.

This continued for four days, and Raven was nearly dead from
exhaustion and the bruises which he received. Then the room became
still and the whale was dead, for Raven had torn off 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 was saying to himself, "Now I
_am_ in a pretty boat! I have enjoyed the trip, but how is one to get
out of a kayak like this?"

Presently he said, "Hark! What is that I hear? As I live, it is
someone walking on the roof of the house!"

And he was right, for two men were walking on top of the dead whale
and calling to their village mates to come and help cut it up. Very
soon there were many people at work cutting a hole through the upper
side of the whale's body.

Raven quickly pulled down his mask, becoming a bird, and crouched
close in the farthest corner. When the hole was large enough, he
watched his chance and while everybody was carrying a load of meat to
the shore, he flew out and alighted on the top of a hill close by
without being noticed.

"Ah, my good fire-drill; I have forgotten it," he exclaimed,
remembering that he had left it behind.

He quickly pushed up his beak and removed his raven coat, becoming a
young man again. He started along the shore toward the whale. The
people working on the dead animal saw a small, dark-colored man in a
strangely made deerskin coat coming toward them, and they looked at
him curiously.

"Ho, you have found a fine, large whale," said he as he drew near. "I
will help you to cut him up."

He rolled up his sleeves and set to work. Very soon a man cutting on
the inside of the whale's body called out, "Ah, see what I have
found! A fire-drill inside a w