“Thunder has stolen my wife,” replied the man.  “I seek his dwelling-place that I may find her.”

“Would you dare enter the lodge of that dreadful person?” asked the Raven.  “He lives close by here.  His lodge is of stone, like this; and hanging there, within, are eyes,—­the eyes of those he has killed or stolen.  He has taken out their eyes and hung them in his lodge.  Now, then, dare you enter there?”

“No,” replied the man.  “I am afraid.  What man could look at such dreadful things and live?”

“No person can,” said the Raven.  “There is but one old Thunder fears.  There is but one he cannot kill.  It is I, it is the Ravens.  Now I will give you medicine, and he shall not harm you.  You shall enter there, and seek among those eyes your wife’s; and if you find them, tell that Thunder why you came, and make him give them to you.  Here, now, is a raven’s wing.  Just point it at him, and he will start back quick; but if that fail, take this.  It is an arrow, and the shaft is made of elk-horn.  Take this, I say, and shoot it through the lodge.”

“Why make a fool of me?” the poor man asked.  “My heart is sad.  I am crying.”  And he covered his head with his robe, and wept.

“Oh,” said the Raven, “you do not believe me.  Come out, come out, and I will make you believe.”  When they stood outside, the Raven asked, “Is the home of your people far?”

“A great distance,” said the man.

“Can you tell how many days you have travelled?”

“No,” he replied, “my heart is sad.  I did not count the days.  The berries have grown and ripened since I left.”

“Can you see your camp from here?” asked the Raven.

The man did not speak.  Then the Raven rubbed some medicine on his eyes and said, “Look!” The man looked, and saw the camp.  It was close.  He saw the people.  He saw the smoke rising from the lodges.

“Now you will believe,” said the Raven.  “Take now the arrow and the wing, and go and get your wife.”

So the man took these things, and went to the Thunder’s lodge.  He entered and sat down by the door-way.  The Thunder sat within and looked at him with awful eyes.  But the man looked above, and saw those many pairs of eyes.  Among them were those of his wife.

“Why have you come?” said the Thunder in a fearful voice.

“I seek my wife,” the man replied, “whom you have stolen.  There hang her eyes.”

“No man can enter my lodge and live,” said the Thunder; and he rose to strike him.  Then the man pointed the raven wing at the Thunder, and he fell back on his couch and shivered.  But he soon recovered, and rose again.  Then the man fitted the elk-horn arrow to his bow, and shot it through the lodge of rock; right through that lodge of rock it pierced a jagged hole, and let the sunlight in.

“Hold,” said the Thunder.  “Stop; you are the stronger.  Yours the great medicine.  You shall have your wife.  Take down her eyes.”  Then the man cut the string that held them, and immediately his wife stood beside him.