Atondido Stories
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 carry-
ing 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, re-
membering 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 to-
ward 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 whale!"
At once the wily Raven rolled down his sleeves and quit
work, saying, "That is a bad sign, for my daughter has told me
that if a fire-drill is found in a whale and people try to cut up
that whale, many of them will die. I shall run away before the in-
ua of the whale catches me." And away he ran.
When he was gone the people looked at one another and
said, "Perhaps he is right; we'd better go too." And away they all
ran, each one trying to rub the oil from his hands as he went.
From his hiding-place Raven looked on and laughed as he
saw the people running away. Then he went back for his raven
coat and when he had put it on and pulled down his beak he
flew to the carcass and began to cut it up and fly with chunks of
the flesh to a cave on the shore. He did not dare go to it as a man
lest the villagers should see him and, discovering the trick he
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