Then there is Aab-Waak, whose head rests always on one shoulder, as though at some time the neck had become very tired and refused forevermore its wonted duty.

The cause of all these things,the peaceableness, and the polygamy, and the tired neck of Aab-Waak,goes back among the years to the time when the schooner Search dropped anchor in Mandell Bay, and when Tyee, chief man of the tribe, conceived a scheme of sudden wealth.

Why they come!" clamored many voices, and Aab-Waak waved his hand for silence.

" "Ay, Aab-Waak!

" "But how can it be that Bill-Man speaks our tongue?" demanded a little weazened old hunter,"Bill-Man, upon whom never before our eyes have rested?" "Bill-Man has been other times in the Snow Lands," Aab-Waak answered, "else would he not speak the speech of the Bear People, which is like the speech of the Hungry Folk, which is very like the speech of the Mandells.

"I shall take the gun of Bill-Man for myself," Aab-Waak suddenly proclaimed.

Then, turning to Aab-Waak, he said: "Go thou, and gather together many sealskins filled with oil.

Tyee and the rest scattered to either side, out of direct range, and Aab-Waak hastened the men forward with the skins of oil.

In the trap!" "And no one may gainsay me the gun of Bill-Man," Aab-Waak announced.

"Move not," Tyee pleaded, as Aab-Waak came worming over the ground to him.

"Move not, good Aab-Waak, else you bring death upon us.

" "Death sits upon many," Aab-Waak laughed; "wherefore, as you say, there will be much wealth in division.

" "As you say, good Aab-Waak, and as I have said; but before division must come that which we may divide, and the Sunlanders be not yet dead.

Tyee ducked and shivered, but Aab-Waak grinned and sought vainly to follow it with his eyes.

"It is a bad place where lie Bill-Man and his brothers," Aab-Waak explained.

"The time will go before they are aware," he explained to Aab-Waak; "and their minds being busy, they will not think overmuch of the dead that are, nor gather trouble to themselves.

Aab-Waak did not know, but thought it might be a signal of some sort.

Tyee and Aab-Waak tried to hold the Mandell Folk back, were thrust aside, and could only turn and watch the mad charge.

Aab-Waak pondered.

" "We fought before for great wealth; we fight now that we may live," Aab-Waak summed up succinctly.

Tyee shook his head, and even Aab-Waak was dubious.

Then Aab-Waak, of his own will, pushed one bale forward alone.

Thither, and with many exclamations, the tribesmen followed Aab-Waak, and, arrived, they saw plainly where the Sunlanders had climbed to the mouth, twenty and odd feet above.

Aab-Waak gurgled.

Aab-Waak still carries his head on one shoulder, is become an oracle, and preaches peace to the younger generation, for which he receives a pension from the Company.