When she saw Ivango she sprang up joyously, but quickly put her finger to her lips, which meant, “Be quiet!” and whispered to Ivango, “O Brother, you should not have come for me. The whale man is waiting to kill you!”
She looked terribly frightened, but Ivango comforted her, saying, “That’s all right, Sister. We came for you and will die if we have to.”
Before long, they heard the whale man coming in. He pretended to be a kind man and very polite, but Ivango knew better than to believe him. The whale man could not fool Ivango.
After a little while, the whale man told Ivango to fetch his brothers to eat supper with them, and the brothers came. The whale man gave them a good supper with plenty to eat, but they watched carefully, for they knew that he was just waiting for a chance to do them some harm.
When night came the whale man suggested that they play all sorts of games. Ivango beat him every time, and he did not seem to like that at all.
The next morning he took them out to see a big ditch that had been dug during the night. All the men of the village were bringing logs of wood and pokes (skin bags) of oil to the ditch.
The whale man called Ivango and told him to look down into the ditch, and while he was looking gave him a shove. Ivango, taken by surprise, lost his balance and fell in.
Down went Ivango into the deep dark hole. When he reached the bottom he stood still and felt the sides of the ditch all about him, until suddenly his hands came upon a great stone embedded in the earth on one side of the hole. Digging quickly into the earth with his fingers, he dragged out the huge stone and found a deep hole in the earth back of it. Into this hole he crept, pulling the stone into place after him. Outside, the whale man built a big fire with logs and oil and shoved it into the pit, thinking that Ivango would be burned up; but Ivango was safe behind the rock, and the fire never even singed his mukluks. When the flames had died down and there was nothing left but ashes, he crept out from his hiding-place and called for some one to let down a rope for him to climb up by. Soon he saw the rope coming down. It was made of walrus hide such as is used for lashing boats. Ivango took hold of the end of the rope and his brothers pulled him out.
The whale man stood there looking much surprised to see him come out unharmed, and Ivango, springing upon him, hurled him into the pit. Then turning to the people, Ivango said, “If this man is unkind to you, bring some more wood and oil and we will burn him up. If he is good to you, let down the rope again and pull him out after we have gone away.”
“No, no!” they shouted loudly. “We do not want to pull him out. He is not good to us at all, but very wicked and cruel. Let us burn him up!” and they all ran to bring more wood and oil, much more than before and made a great fire themselves and threw it into the pit before Ivango could stop them.