rt. The raven declared he had never before had such a
good thing in all his life. Here was a nice large room with plenty to
excite his curiosity, while there was no end of good things to eat.

At the end of a week he found himself growing quite fleshy, but the big
red object was not beating with the same regularity as at first. At
last it ceased, and the whale lay floating on the water, dead. The
whale's friends declared that their late comrade had died suddenly from
heart failure, induced by a cold in the nose and aggravated by too much
sneezing.

The raven soon began to suspect that all was not quite right. The big
red object did not work any longer, while everything remained so still.
After a while, the breaking of the surf on the beach greeted his ears.
Then people's voices were heard shouting, "Here comes some new meat and
black skin floating on the ocean."

The whale drifted on shore and the inhabitants were soon cutting off
the meat and blubber. One man, working on the ribs, quickly had a hole
made and light began streaming through. The raven said to himself,
"Here I have grown quite corpulent during the lazy life I have been
leading; I must not let the men see me." So, crouching down and hiding,
he waited until the hole was made large enough, then suddenly opening
his wings flew out. Everybody was much surprised to see the raven come
out of the whale. But they heard him say before he disappeared toward
his home on the cliffs, that in the future he would stick by his own
people and avoid those frivolous young ladies of the Barnacle Goose
family.

XXI

COURTSHIP

As viewed by the outsider, the average Inupash courtship is devoid of
romance. The first mating of young people is usually suggested and
arranged by the mothers, yet there are slight indications noticeable to
the initiated that will often point to the intentions of the persons
interested. If one sees a young man beating out a piece of metal and
fashioning a finger ring, it is apt to be for some young woman; or
should a young woman be making a fancy tobacco bag, of course it is for
some young man, and the whispering of love is probably back of the
inspiration. It only remains for the meeting of the two mothers to
arrange matters.

The two families may be living close together, yet the mother of one
will call on her neighbor and tell her how she has intended to be more
neighborly, but she has been so busy. Then the neighbor will declare
ho