, a long beard and a big beak; you shall sleep
under my wings, and I will give you lovely offal to eat."

"I will not take you for a husband, for you have a high forehead, broad
temples, a long beard and a big beak, and will give me offal to eat."

So the raven flew away--flew off to seek a wife among the wild
geese. And he was so lovesick that he could not sleep.

When he came to the wild geese, they were about to fly away to
other lands.

Said the raven to two of the geese:

"Seeing that a miserable sparrow has refused me, I will have you."

"We are just getting ready to fly away," said the geese.

"I will go too," said the raven.

"But consider this: that none can go with us who cannot swim or rest
upon the surface of the water. For there are no icebergs along the
way we go."

"It is nothing; I will sail through the air," said the raven.

And the wild geese flew away, and the raven with them. But very soon
he felt himself sinking from weariness and lack of sleep.

"Something to rest on!" cried the raven, gasping. "Sit you down
side by side." And his two wives sat down together on the water,
while their comrades flew on.

The raven sat down on them and fell asleep. But when his wives saw
the other geese flying farther and farther away, they dropped that
raven into the sea and flew off after them.

"Something to rest on!" gasped the raven, as it fell into the
water. And at last it went to the bottom and was drowned.

And after a while, it broke up into little pieces, and its soul was
turned into little "sea ravens." [8]

THE MAN WHO TOOK A VIXEN TO WIFE

There was once a man who wished to have a wife unlike all other wives,
and so he caught a little fox, a vixen, and took it home to his tent.

One day when he had been out hunting, he was surprised to find on his
return that his little fox-wife had become a real woman. She had a
lovely top-knot, made of that which had been her tail. And she had
taken off the furry skin. And when he saw her thus, he thought her
very beautiful indeed.

Now she began to talk about journeyings, and how greatly she desired
to see other people. And so they went off, and came to a place and
settled down there.

One of the men there had taken a little hare to wife. And now these
two men thought it would be a pleasant thing to change wives. And so
they did.

But the man who had borrowed the little vixen wife began to feel
scorn of her after he had lived with