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diff --git a/old/legva10.txt b/old/legva10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..97b4504 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/legva10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4743 @@ +Project Gutenberg Etext Legends of Vancouver by E. Pauline Johnson + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check +the laws for your country before redistributing these files!!! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. + +Please do not remove this. + +This should be the first thing seen when anyone opens the book. +Do not change or edit it without written permission. 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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.08.01*END** +[Portions of this header are copyright (C) 2001 by Michael S. Hart +and may be reprinted only when these Etexts are free of all fees.] +[Project Gutenberg is a TradeMark and may not be used in any sales +of Project Gutenberg Etexts or other materials be they hardware or +software or any other related product without express permission.] + + + + + +This etext was produced by Judy Boss. + + + + + +Legends of Vancouver + +By E. Pauline Johnson +(Tekahionwake) + + + + +Preface + +I have been asked to write a preface to these +Legends of Vancouver, which, in conjunction +with the members of the Publication Sub-committee +--Mrs. Lefevre, Mr. L. W. Makovski and Mr. R. W. +Douglas--I have helped to put through the press. +But scarcely any prefatory remarks are necessary. +This book may well stand on its own merits. Still, +it may be permissible to record one's glad satisfaction +that a poet has arisen to cast over the shoulders +of our grey mountains, our trail-threaded forests, +our tide-swept waters, and the streets and sky-scrapers +of our hurrying city, a gracious mantle of +romance. Pauline Johnson has linked the vivid +present with the immemorial past. Vancouver takes +on a new aspect as we view it through her eyes. In +the imaginative power that she has brought to these +semi-historical sagas, and in the liquid flow of her +rhythmical prose, she has shown herself to be a +literary worker of whom we may well be proud: she +has made a most estimable contribution to purely +Canadian literature. + + BERNARD McEVOY + + + + +Author's Foreword + +These legends (with two or three exceptions) +were told to me personally by my honored +friend, the late Chief Joe Capilano, of Vancouver, +whom I had the privilege of first meeting in +London in 1906, when he visited England and was +received at Buckingham Palace by their Majesties +King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra. + +To the fact that I was able to greet Chief Capilano +in the Chinook tongue, while we were both many +thousands of miles from home, I owe the friendship +and the confidence which he so freely gave me when +I came to reside on the Pacific Coast. These legends +he told me from time to time, just as the mood +possessed him, and he frequently remarked that +they had never been revealed to any other English-speaking +person save myself. + + E. PAULINE JOHNSON (Tekahionwake) + + + + +Biographical Notice + +E. Pauline Johnson (Tekahionwake) is +the youngest child of a family of four +born to the late G. H. M. Johnson (Onwanonsyshon), +Head Chief of the Six Nations +Indians, and his wife Emily S. Howells. The latter +was of English parentage, her birthplace being +Bristol, but the land of her adoption Canada. + +Chief Johnson was of the renowned Mohawk +tribe, being a scion of one of the fifty noble families +which composed the historical confederation founded +by Hiawatha upwards of four hundred years ago, +and known at that period as the Brotherhood of the +Five Nations, but which was afterwards named the +Iroquois by the early French missionaries and explorers. +For their loyalty to the British Crown +they were granted the magnificent lands bordering +the Grand River, in the County of Brant, Ontario, +on which the tribes still live. + +It was upon this Reserve, on her father's estate, +"Chiefswood," that Pauline Johnson was born. The +loyalty of her ancestors breathes in her prose, as +well as in her poetic writings. + +Her education was neither extensive nor elaborate. +It embraced neither high school nor college. +A nursery governess for two years at home, three +years at an Indian day school half a mile from her +home, and two years in the Central School of the +city of Brantford, was the extent of her educational +training. But, besides this, she acquired a wide +general knowledge, having been through childhood +and early girlhood a great reader, especially of +poetry. Before she was twelve years old she had +read Scott, Longfellow, Byron, Shakespeare, and +such books as Addison's "Spectator," Foster's Essays +and Owen Meredith's writings. + +The first periodicals to accept her poems and place +them before the public were "Gems of Poetry," a +small magazine published in New York, and "The +Week," established by the late Prof. Goldwin Smith, +of Toronto, the New York "Independent" and +Toronto "Saturday Night." Since then she has contributed +to most of the high-grade magazines, both +on this continent and England. + +Her writings having brought her into notice, the +next step in Miss Johnson's career was her appearance +on the public platform as a reciter of her own +poems. For this she had natural talent, and in the +exercise of it she soon developed a marked ability, +joined with a personal magnetism, that was destined +to make her a favorite with audiences from the +Atlantic to the Pacific. Her friend, Mr. Frank +Yeigh, of Toronto, provided for a series of recitals +having that scope, with the object of enabling her to +go to England to arrange for the publication of her +poems. Within two years this aim was accomplished, +her book of poems, "The White Wampum," +being published by John Lane, of the Bodley Head. +She took with her numerous letters of introduction, +including one from the Governor-General, +the Earl of Aberdeen, and she soon gained both +social and literary standing. Her book was received +with much favor, both by reviewers and the public. +After giving many recitals in fashionable drawing-rooms, +she returned to Canada, and made her first +tour to the Pacific Coast, giving recitals at all the +cities and towns en route. Since then she has +crossed the Rocky Mountains no fewer than +nineteen times. + +Miss Johnson's pen had not been idle, and in 1903 +the George Morang Co., of Toronto, published her +second book of poems, entitled "Canadian Born," +which was also well received. + +After a number of recitals, which included Newfoundland +and the Maritime Provinces, she went to +England again in 1906 and made her first appearance +in Steinway Hall, under the distinguished patronage +of Lord and Lady Strathcona. In the following year +she again visited London, returning by way of the +United States, where she gave many recitals. After +another tour of Canada she decided to give up public +work, to make Vancouver, B. C., her home, and to +devote herself to literary work. + +Only a woman of remarkable powers of endurance +could have borne up under the hardships necessarily +encountered in travelling through North-western +Canada in pioneer days as Miss Johnson did; and +shortly after settling down in Vancouver the exposure +and hardship she had endured began to tell +on her, and her health completely broke down. +For almost a year she has been an invalid, and as +she is unable to attend to the business herself, a +trust has been formed by some of the leading citizens +of her adopted city for the purpose of collecting and +publishing for her benefit her later works. Among +these are the beautiful Indian Legends contained in +this volume, which she has been at great pains to +collect, and a series of boys' stories, which have +been exceedingly well received by magazine readers. + +During the sixteen years Miss Johnson was travelling, +she had many varied and interesting experiences. She +travelled the old Battleford trail before +the railroad went through, and across the Boundary +country in British Columbia in the romantic days +of the early pioneers. Once she took an eight hundred +and fifty mile drive up the Cariboo trail to the +gold fields. She has always been an ardent canoeist, +and has run many strange rivers, crossed many a +lonely lake, and camped in many an unfrequented +place. These venturesome trips she made more from +her inherent love of Nature and adventure than +from any necessity of her profession. + + + + + +Contents + + + Page +Preface . . . . . . . . . v +Author's Foreword . . . . . . . vii +Biographical Notice . . . . . . ix +The Two Sisters . . . . . . . 1 +The Siwash Rock . . . . . . . 7 +The Recluse . . . . . . . . 13 +The Lost Salmon Run . . . . . . 21 +The Deep Waters . . . . . . . 27 +The Sea-Serpent . . . . . . . 33 +The Lost Island . . . . . . . 39 +Point Grey . . . . . . . . 43 +The Tulameen Trail . . . . . . . 47 +The Grey Archway . . . . . . . 53 +Deadman's Island . . . . . . . 61 +A Squamish Legend of Napoleon . . . 67 +The Lure in Stanley Park . . . . . 73 +Deer Lake . . . . . . . . 79 +A Royal Mohawk Chief . . . . . . 85 + + + + + +The Two Sisters +----- +THE LIONS + +You can see them as you look towards +the north and the west, +where the dream hills swim into +the sky amid their ever-drifting +clouds of pearl and grey. They +catch the earliest hint of sunrise, they hold +the last color of sunset. Twin mountains they +are, lifting their twin peaks above the fairest +city in all Canada, and known throughout the +British Empire as "The Lions of Vancouver." + +Sometimes the smoke of forest fires blurs +them until they gleam like opals in a purple +atmosphere, too beautiful for words to paint. +Sometimes the slanting rains festoon scarfs +of mist about their crests, and the peaks fade +into shadowy outlines, melting, melting, forever +melting into the distances. But for most +days in the year the sun circles the twin +glories with a sweep of gold. The moon +washes them with a torrent of silver. Oftentimes, +when the city is shrouded in rain, the +sun yellows their snows to a deep orange, but +through sun and shadow they stand immovable, +smiling westward above the waters of +the restless Pacific, eastward above the superb +beauty of the Capilano Canyon. But the Indian +tribes do now know these peaks as "The +Lions." Even the Chief, whose feet have so +recently wandered to the Happy Hunting +Grounds, never heard the name given them +until I mentioned it to him one dreamy August +day, as together we followed the trail leading +to the canyon. He seemed so surprised at the +name that I mentioned the reason it had been +applied to them, asking him if he recalled the +Landseer Lions in Trafalgar Square. Yes, he +remembered those splendid sculptures, and his +quick eye saw the resemblance instantly. It +seemed to please him, and his fine face expressed +the haunting memories of the faraway +roar of Old London. But the "call of the +blood" was stronger, and presently he referred +to the Indian legend of those peaks--a +legend that I have reason to believe is absolutely +unknown to thousands of Palefaces who look +upon "The Lions" daily, without the love for +them that is in the Indian heart; without +knowledge of the secret of "The Two Sisters. +The legend was far more fascinating as it left +his lips in the quaint broken English that is +never so dulcet as when it slips from an +Indian tongue. His inimitable gestures, +strong, graceful, comprehensive, were like a +perfectly chosen frame embracing a delicate +painting, and his brooding eyes were as +the light in which the picture hung. +"Many thousands of years ago," he began, +"there were no twin peaks like sentinels guarding +the outposts of this sunset coast. They +were placed there long after the first creation, +when the Sagalie Tyee moulded the mountains, +and patterned the mighty rivers where +the salmon run, because of His love for His +Indian children, and His Wisdom for their necessities. +In those times there were many +and mighty Indian tribes along the Pacific-- +in the mountain ranges, at the shores and +sources of the great Fraser River. Indian +law ruled the land. Indian customs prevailed. +Indian beliefs were regarded. Those were +the legend-making ages when great things +occurred to make the traditions we repeat to +our children today. Perhaps the greatest of +these traditions is the story of 'The Two +Sisters,' for they are known to us as 'The +Chief's Daughters,' and to them we owe the +Great Peace in which we live, and have lived +for many countless moons. There is an ancient +custom amongst the Coast tribes that +when our daughters step from childhood into +the great world of womanhood the occasion +must be made one of extreme rejoicing. +The being who possesses the possibility of +someday mothering a man child, a warrior, a +brave, receives much consideration in most +nations, but to us, the Sunset Tribes, she is +honored above all people. The parents usually +give a great potlatch, and a feast that lasts +many days. The entire tribe and the surrounding +tribes are bidden to this festival. +More than that, sometimes when a great +Tyee celebrates for his daughter, the tribes +from far up the coast, from the distant north, +from inland, from the island, from the +Cariboo country, are gathered as guests +to the feast. During these days of rejoicing, +the girl is placed in a high seat, an +exalted position, for is she not marriageable? +And does not marriage mean motherhood? And +does not motherhood mean a vaster nation of +brave sons and of gentle daughters, who, in +their turn, will give us sons and daughters of +their own? + +"But it was many thousands of years ago +that a great Tyee had two daughters that +grew to womanhood at the same springtime, +when the first great run of salmon thronged +the rivers, and the ollallie bushes were heavy +with blossoms. These two daughters were +young, lovable, and oh! very beautiful. Their +father, the great Tyee, prepared to make a +feast such as the Coast had never seen. There +were to be days and days of rejoicing, the +people were to come for many leagues, were +to bring gifts to the girls and to receive gifts +of great value from the Chief, and hospitality +was to reign as long as pleasuring feet could +dance, and enjoying lips could laugh, and +mouths partake of the excellence of the Chief's +fish, game and ollallies. + +"The only shadow on the joy of it all was +war, for the tribe of the great Tyee was at +war with the Upper Coast Indians, those who +lived north, near what is named by the Paleface +as the port of Prince Rupert. Giant war +canoes slipped along the entire coast, war +parties paddled up and down, war songs broke +the silences of the nights, hatred, vengeance, +strife, horror festered everywhere like sores +on the surface of the earth. But the great +Tyee, after warring for weeks, turned and +laughed at the battle and the bloodshed, for +he had been victor in every encounter, and he +could well afford to leave the strife for a brief +week and feast in his daughters' honor, nor +permit any mere enemy to come between him +and the traditions of his race and household. +So he turned insultingly deaf ears to their war +cries; he ignored with arrogant indifference +their paddle dips that encroached within his +own coast waters, and he prepared as a great +Tyee should, to royally entertain his tribesmen +in honor of his daughters. + +"But seven suns before the great feast these +two maidens came before him, hand clasped +in hand. + +"'Oh! our father,' they said, 'may we +speak?' + +"'Speak, my daughters, my girls with the +eyes of April, the hearts of June'" (early +spring and early summer would be the more +accurate Indian phrasing). + +"'Some day, Oh! our father, we may mother +a man child, who may grow to be just such a +powerful Tyee as you are, and for this honor +that may some day be ours we have come to +crave a favor of you--you, Oh! our father.' + +"'It is your privilege at this celebration to +receive any favor your hearts may wish,' he +replied graciously, placing his fingers beneath +their girlish chins. 'The favor is yours before +you ask it, my daughters.' + +"'Will you, for our sakes, invite the great +northern hostile tribes--the tribe you war +upon--to this, our feast?' they asked fearlessly. + +"'To a peaceful feast, a feast in the honor +of women?' he exclaimed incredulously. + +"'So we would desire it,' they answered. + +"'And so shall it be,' he declared. 'I can +deny you nothing this day, and some time you +may bear sons to bless this peace you have +asked, and to bless their mother's sire for +granting it.' Then he turned to all the young +men of the tribe and commanded, 'Build fires +at sunset on all the coast headlands--fires of +welcome. Man your canoes and face the north, +greet the enemy, and tell them that I, the Tyee +of the Capilanos, ask--no, command that they +join me for a great feast in honor of my two +daughters.' And when the northern tribes +got this invitation they flocked down the coast +to this feast of a Great Peace. They brought +their women and their children: they brought +game and fish, gold and white stone beads, +baskets and carven ladles, and wonderful +woven blankets to lay at the feet of their now +acknowledged ruler, the great Tyee. And he, +in turn, gave such a potlatch that nothing but +tradition can vie with it. There were long, +glad days of joyousness, long pleasurable +nights of dancing and camp fires, and vast +quantities of food. The war canoes were +emptied of their deadly weapons and filled +with the daily catch of salmon. The hostile +war songs ceased, and in their place were heard +the soft shuffle of dancing feet, the singing +voices of women, the play-games of the children +of two powerful tribes which had been +until now ancient enemies, for a great and +lasting brotherhood was sealed between +them--their war songs were ended forever. + +"Then the Sagalie Tyee smiled on His Indian +children: 'I will make these young-eyed +maidens immortal,' He said. In the cup of +His hands He lifted the Chief's two daughters +and set them forever in a high place, for they +had borne two offspring--Peace and Brotherhood +--each of which is now a great Tyee +ruling this land. + +"And on the mountain crest the Chief's +daughters can be seen wrapped in the suns, +the snows, the stars of all seasons, for they +have stood in this high place for thousands +of years, and will stand for thousands of +years to come, guarding the peace of the +Pacific Coast and the quiet of the Capilano +Canyon." + + * * * * * + +This is the Indian legend of "The Lions of +Vancouver" as I had it from one who will tell +me no more the traditions of his people. + + + + + +The Siwash Rock + +Unique and so distinct from its surroundings +as to suggest rather the +handicraft of man than a whim of +Nature, it looms up at the entrance +to the Narrows, a symmetrical +column of solid grey stone. There are no +similar formations within the range of vision, +or indeed within many a day's paddle up and +down the coast. Amongst all the wonders, +the natural beauties that encircle Vancouver, +the marvels of mountains shaped into crouching +lions and brooding beavers, the yawning +canyons, the stupendous forest firs and cedars, +Siwash Rock stands as distinct, as individual, +as if dropped from another sphere. + +I saw it first in the slanting light of a redly +setting August sun; the little tuft of green +shrubbery that crests its summit was black +against the crimson of sea and sky, and its +colossal base of grey stone gleamed like +flaming polished granite. + +My old tillicum lifted his paddle blade to +point towards it. "You know the story?" he +asked. I shook my head (experience had +taught me his love of silent replies, his moods +of legend-telling). For a time we paddled +slowly; the rock detached itself from its background +of forest and shore, and it stood forth +like a sentinel--erect, enduring, eternal. + +"Do you think it stands straight--like a +man?" he asked. + +"Yes, like some noble-spirited, upright warrior," +I replied. + +"It is a man," he said, "and a warrior man, +too; a man who fought for everything that +was noble and upright." + +"What do you regard as everything that is +noble and upright, Chief?" I asked, curious as +to his ideas. I shall not forget the reply: it +was but two words--astounding, amazing +words. He said simply: + +"Clean fatherhood." + +Through my mind raced tumultuous recollections +of numberless articles in yet numberless +magazines, all dealing with the recent +"fad" of motherhood, but I had to hear from +the lips of a Squamish Indian Chief the only +treatise on the nobility of "clean fatherhood" +that I have yet unearthed. And this treatise +has been an Indian legend for centuries; and +lest they forget how all-important those two +little words must ever be, Siwash Rock stands +to remind them, set there by the Deity as a +monument to one who kept his own life clean, +that cleanliness might be the heritage of the +generations to come. + +It was "thousands of years ago" (all Indian +legends begin in extremely remote times) +that a handsome boy chief journeyed in his +canoe to the upper coast for the shy little +northern girl whom he brought home as his +wife. Boy though he was, the young chief +had proved himself to be an excellent warrior, +a fearless hunter, and an upright, courageous +man among men. His tribe loved him, his +enemies respected him, and the base and mean +and cowardly feared him. + +The customs and traditions of his ancestors +were a positive religion to him, the sayings +and the advices of the old people were his +creed. He was conservative in every rite and +ritual of his race. He fought his tribal enemies +like the savage that he was. He sang his war +songs, danced his war dances, slew his foes, +but the little girl-wife from the north he +treated with the deference that he gave his +own mother, for was she not to be the mother +of his warrior son? + +The year rolled round, weeks merged into +months, winter into spring, and one glorious +summer at daybreak he wakened to her voice +calling him. She stood beside him, smiling. + +"It will be to-day," she said proudly. + +He sprang from his couch of wolf skins and +looked out upon the coming day: the promise +of what it would bring him seemed breathing +through all his forest world. He took her +very gently by the hand and led her through +the tangle of wilderness down to the water's +edge, where the beauty spot we moderns call +Stanley Park bends about Prospect Point. "I +must swim," he told her. + +"I must swim, too," she smiled with the perfect +understanding of two beings who are +mated. For to them the old Indian custom +was law--the custom that the parents of a +coming child must swim until their flesh is so +clear and clean that a wild animal cannot +scent their proximity. If the wild creatures of +the forests have no fear of them, then, and only +then, are they fit to become parents, and to +scent a human is in itself a fearsome thing to +all wild things. + +So those two plunged into the waters +of the Narrows as the grey dawn slipped up +the eastern skies and all the forest awoke to +the life of a new, glad day. Presently he took +her ashore, and smilingly she crept away +under the giant trees. "I must be alone," +she said, "but some to me at sunrise: you will +not find me alone then." He smiled also, and +plunged back into the sea. He must swim, +swim, swim through this hour when his +fatherhood was coming upon him. It was the +law that he must be clean, spotlessly clean, +so that when his child looked out upon the +world it would have the chance to live its own +life clean. If he did not swim hour upon hour +his child would come to an unclean father. +He must give his child a chance in life; he +must not hamper it by his own uncleanliness +at its birth. It was the tribal law--the law of +vicarious purity. + +As he swam joyously to and fro, a canoe +bearing four men headed up the Narrows. +These men were giants in stature, and the +stroke of their paddles made huge eddies that +boiled like the seething tides. + +"Out from our course!" they cried as his +lithe, copper-colored body arose and fell with +his splendid stroke. He laughed at them, +giants though they were, and answered that +he could not cease his swimming at their +demand. + +"But you shall cease!" they commanded. +"We are the men (agents) of the Sagalie Tyee +(God), and we command you ashore out of +our way!" (I find in all these Coast Indian +legends that the Deity is represented by four +men, usually paddling an immense canoe.) + +He ceased swimming, and, lifting his head, +defied them. "I shall not stop, nor yet go +ashore," he declared, striking out once more +to the middle of the channel. + +"Do you dare disobey us," they cried--"we, +the men of the Sagalie Tyee? We can turn +you into a fish, or a tree, or a stone for this; +do you dare disobey the Great Tyee?" + +"I dare anything for the cleanliness and +purity of my coming child. I dare even the +Sagalie Tyee Himself, but my child must be +born to a spotless life." + +The four men were astounded. They consulted +together, lighted their pipes and sat in +council. Never had they, the men of the +Sagalie Tyee, been defied before. Now, for +the sake of a little unborn child, they were +ignored, disobeyed, almost despised. The +lithe young copper-colored body still disported +itself in the cool waters; superstition +held that should their canoe, or even their +paddle blades, touch a human being their +marvellous power would be lost. The handsome +young chief swam directly in their +course. They dared not run him down; if so, +they would become as other men. While they +yet counselled what to do, there floated from +out the forest a faint, strange, compelling +sound. They listened, and the young chief +ceased his stroke as he listened also. The +faint sound drifted out across the waters once +more. It was the cry of a little, little child. +Then one of the four men, he that steered the +canoe, the strongest and tallest of them all, +arose and, standing erect, stretched out his +arms towards the rising sun and chanted, not +a curse on the young chief's disobedience, but +a promise of everlasting days and freedom +from death. + +"Because you have defied all things that +came in your path we promise this to you," +he chanted; "you have defied what interferes +with your child's chance for a clean life, you +have lived as you wish your son to live, you +have defied us when we would have stopped +your swimming and hampered your child's +future. You have placed that child's future +before all things, and for this the Sagalie Tyee +commands us to make you forever a pattern +for your tribe. You shall never die, but you +shall stand through all the thousands of +years to come, where all eyes can see you. +You shall live, live, live as an indestructible +monument to Clean Fatherhood." + +The four men lifted their paddles, and as +the handsome young chief swam inshore, as +his feet touched the line where sea and land +met, he was transformed into stone. + +Then the four men said, "His wife and child +must ever be near him; they shall not die, but +live also." And they, too, were turned into +stone. If you penetrate the hollows in the +woods near Siwash Rock you will find a large +rock and a smaller one beside it. They are +the shy little bride-wife from the north, with +her hour-old baby beside her. And from the +uttermost parts of the world vessels come daily +throbbing and sailing up the Narrows. From +far trans-Pacific ports, from the frozen North, +from the lands of the Southern Cross, they +pass and repass the living rock that was there +before their hulls were shaped, that will be +there when their very names are forgotten, +when their crews and their captains have +taken their long last voyage, when their merchandise +has rotted, and their owners are +known no more. But the tall, grey column of +stone will still be there--a monument to one +man's fidelity to a generation yet unborn-- +and will endure from everlasting to everlasting. + + + + + +The Recluse + +Journeying toward the upper +course of the Capilano River, +about a mile citywards from the +damn, you will pass a disused +logger's shack. Leave the trail +at this point and strike through the undergrowth +for a few hundred yards and you will +be on the rocky borders of that purest, most +restless river in all Canada. The stream is +haunted with tradition, teeming with a score +of romances that vie with its grandeur and +loveliness, and of which its waters are perpetually +whispering. But I learned this legend +from one whose voice was as dulcet as the +swirling rapids; but, unlike them, that voice +is hushed today, while the river still sings on +--sings on. + +It was singing in very melodious tones +through the long August afternoon two summers +ago, while we, the chief, his happy-hearted +wife and bright, young daughter, all +lounged amongst the boulders and watched +the lazy clouds drift from peak to peak far +above us. It was one of his inspired days; +legends crowded to his lips as a whistle teases +the mouth of a happy boy, his heart was +brimming with tales of the bygones, his eyes +were dark with dreams and that strange +mournfulness that always haunted them when +he spoke of long-ago romances. There was +not a tree, a boulder, a dash of rapid upon +which his glance fell that he had not some +ancient superstition to link with it. Then +abruptly, in the very midst of his verbal reveries, +he turned and asked me if I were superstitious. Of +course I replied that I was. + +"Do you think some happenings will bring +trouble later on--will foretell evil?" he asked. + +I made some evasive answer, which, however, +seemed to satisfy him, for he plunged +into the strange tale of the recluse of the +canyon with more vigor than dreaminess; but +first he asked me the question: + +"What do your own tribes, those east of +the great mountains think of twin children?" + +I shook my head. + +"That is enough," he said before I could +reply. "I see, your people do not like them." + +"Twin children are almost unknown with +us," I hastened. "They are rare, very rare, +but it is true we do not welcome them." + +"Why?" he asked abruptly. + +I was a little uncertain about telling him. +If I said the wrong thing, the coming tale +might die on his lips before it was born to +speech, but we understood each other so well +that I finally ventured the truth: + +"We Iroquois say that twin children are as +rabbits," I explained. "The nation always +nicknames the parents. 'Tow-wan-da-na-ga.' +That is the Mohawk for rabbit." + +"Is that all?" he asked curiously. + +"That is all. Is it not enough to render twin +children unwelcome?" I questioned. + +He thought awhile, then with evident desire +to learn how all races regarded this occurrence, +he said, "You have been much among +the Palefaces, what do they say of twins?" + +"Oh! the Palefaces like them. They are +--they are--oh! well, they say they are +very proud of having twins," I stammered. +Once again I was hardly sure of my ground. +He looked most incredulous, and I was led to +enquire what his own people of the Squamish +thought of this discussed problem. + +"It is no pride to us," he said, decidedly; +"nor yet is it disgrace of rabbits, but it is a +fearsome thing--a sign of coming evil to the +father, and, worse than that, of coming disaster +to the tribe." + +Then I knew he held in his heart some +strange incident that gave substance to the +superstition. "Won't you tell it to me?" I +begged. + +He leaned a little backward against a giant +boulder, clasping his thin, brown hands about +his knees; his eyes roved up the galloping +river, then swept down the singing waters to +where they crowded past the sudden bend, +and during the entire recital of the strange +legend his eyes never left that spot where +the stream disappeared in its hurrying journey +to the sea. Without preamble he began: + +"It was a grey morning when they told him +of this disaster that had befallen him. He +was a great chief, and he ruled many tribes +on the North Pacific Coast; but what was his +greatness now? His young wife had borne +him twins, and was sobbing out her anguish +in the little fir-bark lodge near the tidewater. + +"Beyond the doorway gathered many old +men and women--old in years, old in wisdom, +old in the lore and learning of their nations. +Some of them wept, some chanted solemnly +the dirge of their lost hopes and happiness, +which would never return because of this +calamity; others discussed in hushed voices +this awesome thing, and for hours their grave +council was broken only by the infant cries +of the two boy-babies in the bark lodge, the +hopeless sobs of the young mother, the agonized +moans of the stricken chief--their +father. + +"'Something dire will happen to the tribe,' +said the old men in council. + +"'Something dire will happen to him, my +husband,' wept the young mother. + +"'Something dire will happen to us all,' +echoed the unhappy father. + +"Then an ancient medicine man arose, +lifting his arms, outstretching his palms to +hush the lamenting throng. His voice shook +with the weight of many winters, but his eyes +were yet keen and mirrored the clear thought +and brain behind them, as the still trout pools +in the Capilano mirror the mountain tops. +His words were masterful, his gestures commanding, +his shoulders erect and kindly. His +was a personality and an inspiration that no +one dared dispute, and his judgment was accepted +as the words fell slowly, like a doom. + +"'It is the olden law of the Squamish that +lest evil befall the tribe the sire of twin +children must go afar and alone into the +mountain fastnesses, there by his isolation and +his loneliness to prove himself stronger than +the threatened evil, and thus to beat back the +shadow that would otherwise follow him and +all his people. I, therefore, name for him the +length of days that he must spend alone fighting +his invisible enemy. He will know by +some great sign in Nature the hour that the +evil is conquered, the hour that his race is +saved. He must leave before this sun sets, +taking with him only his strongest bow, his +fleetest arrows, and going up into the mountain +wilderness remain there ten days--alone, +alone.' + +"The masterful voice ceased, the tribe +wailed their assent, the father arose speechless, +his drawn face revealing great agony +over this seemingly brief banishment. He +took leave of his sobbing wife, of the two tiny +souls that were his sons, grasped his favorite +bow and arrows, and faced the forest like a +warrior. But at the end of the ten days he +did not return, nor yet ten weeks, nor yet ten +months. + +"'He is dead,' wept the mother into the +baby ears of her two boys. 'He could not +battle against the evil that threatened; it was +stronger than he--he so strong, so proud, so +brave.' + +"'He is dead,' echoed the tribesmen and the +tribeswomen. 'Our strong, brave chief, he is +dead.' So they mourned the long year +through, but their chants and their tears but +renewed their grief; he did not return to +them. + +"Meanwhile, far up the Capilano the banished +chief had built his solitary home; for +who can tell what fatal trick of sound, what +current of air, what faltering note in the voice +of the Medicine Man had deceived his alert +Indian ears? But some unhappy fate had led +him to understand that his solitude must be +of ten years' duration, not ten days, and he +had accepted the mandate with the heroism +of a stoic. For if he had refused to do so his +belief was that although the threatened disaster +would be spared him, the evil would fall +upon his tribe. This was one more added to +the long list of self-forgetting souls whose +creed has been, 'It is fitting that one should +suffer for the people.' It was the world-old +heroism of vicarious sacrifice. + +"With his hunting-knife the banished +Squamish chief stripped the bark from the firs +and cedars, building for himself a lodge beside +the Capilano River, where leaping trout +and salmon could be speared by arrow-heads +fastened to deftly shaped, long handles. All +through the salmon run he smoked and dried +the fish with the care of a housewife. The +mountain sheep and goats, and even huge +black and cinnamon bears, fell before his unerring +arrows; the fleet-footed deer never returned +to their haunts from their evening +drinking at the edge of the stream--their wild +hearts, their agile bodies were stilled when he +took aim. Smoked hams and saddles hung in +rows from the cross poles of his bark lodge, +and the magnificent pelts of animals carpeted +his floors, padded his couch and clothed his +body. He tanned the soft doe hides, making +leggings, moccasins and shirts, stitching them +together with deer sinew as he had seen his +mother do in the long-ago. He gathered the +juicy salmonberries, their acid flavor being a +gratifying change from meat and fish. Month +by month and year by year he sat beside his +lonely camp-fire, waiting for his long term of +solitude to end. One comfort alone was his-- +he was enduring the disaster, fighting the +evil, that his tribe might go unscathed, that +his people be saved from calamity. Slowly, +laboriously the tenth year dawned; day by +day it dragged its long weeks across his waiting +heart, for Nature had not yet given the +sign that his long probation was over. + +"Then one hot summer day the Thunder +Bird came crashing through the mountains +about him. Up from the arms of the Pacific +rolled the storm cloud, and the Thunder Bird, +with its eyes of flashing light, beat its huge +vibrating wings on crag and canyon. + +"Upstream, a tall shaft of granite rears its +needle-like length. It is named 'Thunder +Rock,' and wise men of the Paleface people +say it is rich in ore--copper, silver and gold. +At the base of this shaft the Squamish chief +crouched when the storm cloud broke and +bellowed through the ranges, and on its summit +the Thunder Bird perched, its gigantic +wings threshing the air into booming sounds, +into splitting terrors, like the crash of a giant +cedar hurtling down the mountain side. + +"But when the beating of those black pinions +ceased and the echo of their thunder +waves died down the depths of the canyon, the +Squamish chief arose as a new man. The +shadow on his soul had lifted, the fears of evil +were cowed and conquered. In his brain, his +blood, his veins, his sinews, he felt that the +poison of melancholy dwelt no more. He had +redeemed his fault of fathering twin children; +he had fulfilled the demands of the law of his +tribe. + +"As he heard the last beat of the Thunder +Bird's wings dying slowly, slowly, faintly, +faintly, among the crags, he knew that the +bird, too, was dying, for its soul was leaving +its monster black body, and presently that +soul appeared in the sky. He could see it +arching overhead, before it took its long journey +to the Happy Hunting Grounds, for the soul +of the Thunder Bird was a radiant half-circle +of glorious color spanning from peak to peak. +He lifted his head then, for he knew it was +the sign the ancient Medicine Man had told +him to wait for--the sign that his long banishment +was ended. + +"And all these years, down in the tidewater +country, the little brown-faced twins were +asking childwise, 'Where is our father? Why +have we no father like other boys?' To be +met only with the oft-repeated reply, 'Your +father is no more. Your father, the great +chief, is dead.' + +"But some strange filial intuition told the +boys that their sire would some day return. +Often they voiced this feeling to their mother, +but she would only weep and say that not +even the witchcraft of the great Medicine +Man could bring him to them. But when +they were ten years old the two children came +to their mother, hand within hand. They +were armed with their little hunting-knives, +their salmon spears, their tiny bows and +arrows. + +"'We go to find our father,' they said. + +"'Oh! useless quest,' wailed the mother. + +"'Oh! useless quest,' echoed the tribes-people. + +"But the great Medicine Man said, 'The +heart of a child has invisible eyes, perhaps the +child-eyes see him. The heart of a child has +invisible ears, perhaps the child-ears hear him +call. Let them go.' So the little children +went forth into the forest; their young feet +flew as though shod with wings, their young +hearts pointed to the north as does the white +man's compass. Day after day they journeyed +up-stream, until rounding a sudden bend they +beheld a bark lodge with a thin blue curl of +smoke drifting from its roof. + +"'It is our father's lodge,' they told each +other, for their childish hearts were unerring +in response to the call of kinship. Hand-in-hand +they approached, and entering the lodge, +said the one word, 'Come.' + +"The great Squamish chief outstretched his +arms towards them, then towards the laughing +river, then towards the mountains. + +"'Welcome, my sons!' he said. 'And good-bye, +my mountains, my brothers, my crags and +my canyons!' And with a child clinging to +each hand he faced once more the country of +the tidewater." + + * * * * * + +The legend was ended. + +For a long time he sat in silence. He had +removed his gaze from the bend in the river, +around which the two children had come and +where the eyes of the recluse had first rested +on them after ten years of solitude. + +The chief spoke again, "It was here, on this +spot we are sitting, that he built his lodge: +here he dwelt those ten years alone, alone." + +I nodded silently. The legend was too +beautiful to mar with comments, and as the +twilight fell, we threaded our way through the +underbrush, past the disused logger's camp +and into the trail that leads citywards. + + + + + +The Lost Salmon Run + +Great had been the "run," and +the sockeye season was almost +over. For that reason I wondered +many times why my old +friend, the klootchman, had failed +to make one of the fishing fleet. She +was an indefatigable workwoman, rivalling +her husband as an expert catcher, and all the +year through she talked of little else but the +coming run. But this especial season she had +not appeared amongst her fellow-kind. The +fleet and the canneries knew nothing of her, +and when I enquired of her tribes-people they +would reply without explanation, "She not +here this year." + +But one russet September afternoon I found +her. I had idled down the trail from the +swans' basin in Stanley Park to the rim that +skirts the Narrows, and I saw her graceful, +high-bowed canoe heading for the beach that +is the favorite landing place of the "tillicums" +from the Mission. Her canoe looked like a +dream-craft, for the water was very still and +everywhere a blue film hung like a fragrant +veil, for the peat on Lulu Island had been +smoldering for days and its pungent odors and +blue-grey haze made a dream-world of sea and +shore and sky. + +I hurried upshore, hailing her in the +Chinook, and as she caught my voice she lifted +her paddle directly above her head in the +Indian signal of greeting. + +As she beached, I greeted her with extended +eager hands to assist her ashore, for the +klootchman is getting to be an old woman; +albeit she paddles against tidewater like a boy +in his teens. + +"No," she said, as I begged her to come +ashore. "I not wait--me. I just come to +fetch Maarda; she been city; she come soon +--now." But she left her "working" attitude +and curled like a schoolgirl in the bow of the +canoe, her elbows resting on her paddle which +she had flung across the gunwales. + +"I have missed you, klootchman; you have +not been to see me for three moons, and you +have not fished or been at the canneries," I +remarked. + +"No," she said. "I stay home this year." +Then leaning towards me with grave import +in her manner, her eyes, her voice, she added, +"I have a grandchild, born first week July, so +--I stay." + +So this explained her absence. I, of course, +offered congratulations and enquired all about +the great event, for this was her first grandchild, +and the little person was of importance. + +"And are you going to make a fisherman of +him?" I asked. + +"No, no, not boy-child, it is girl-child," she +answered with some indescribable trick of expression +that led me to know she preferred +it so. + +"You are pleased it is a girl?" I questioned +in surprise. + +"Very pleased," she replied emphatically. +"Very good luck to have girl for first grandchild. +Own tribe not like yours; we want +girl children first; we not always wish boy-child +born just for fight. Your people, they +care only for war-path; our tribe more peaceful. +Very good sign first grandchild to be +girl. I tell you why: girl-child maybe some +time mother herself; very grand thing to be +mother." + +I felt I had caught the secret of her meaning. +She was rejoicing that this little one +should some time become one of the mothers +of her race. We chatted over it a little longer +and she gave me several playful "digs" about +my own tribe thinking so much less of motherhood +than hers, and so much more of battle +and bloodshed. Then we drifted into talk of +the sockeye run and of the hyiu chickimin the +Indians would get. + +"Yes, hyiu chickimin," she repeated with a +sigh of satisfaction. "Always; and hyiu +muck-a-muck when big salmon run. No more +ever come that bad year when not any fish." + +"When was that?" I asked. + +"Before you born, or I, or"--pointing +across the park to the distant city of Vancouver, +that breathed its wealth and beauty +across the September afternoon--"before that +place born, before white man came here-- +oh! long before." + +Dear old klootchman! I knew by the dusk +in her eyes that she was back in her Land of +Legends, and that soon I would be the richer +in my hoard of Indian lore. She sat, still +leaning on her paddle; her eyes, half-closed, +rested on the distant outline of the blurred +heights across the Inlet. I shall not further +attempt her broken English, for this is but the +shadow of her story, and without her unique +personality the legend is as a flower that lacks +both color and fragrance. She called it "The +Lost Salmon Run." + +"The wife of the Great Tyee was but a wisp +of a girl, but all the world was young in those +days; even the Fraser River was young and +small, not the mighty water it is now; but +the pink salmon crowded its throat just as +they do now, and the tillicums caught and +salted and smoked the fish just as they have +done this year, just as they will always do. +But it was yet winter, and the rains were +slanting and the fogs drifting, when the wife +of the Great Tyee stood before him and said: + +"'Before the salmon run I shall give to you +a great gift. Will you honor me most if it +is the gift of a boy-child or a girl-child?' The +Great Tyee loved the woman. He was stern +with his people, hard with his tribe; he ruled +his council fires with a will of stone. His +medicine men said he had no human heart in +his body; his warriors said he had no human +blood in his veins. But he clasped this woman's +hands, and his eyes, his lips, his voice, +were gentle as her own, as he replied: + +"'Give to me a girl-child--a little girl-child +--that she may grow to be like you, and, +in her turn, give to her husband children.' + +"But when the tribes-people heard of his +choice they arose in great anger. They surrounded +him in a deep indignant circle. 'You +are a slave to the woman,' they declared, 'and +now you desire to make yourself a slave to a +woman-baby. We want an heir--a man-child +to be our Great Tyee in years to come. When +you are old and weary of tribal affairs, when +you sit wrapped in your blanket in the hot +summer sunshine, because your blood is old +and thin, what can a girl-child do to help +either you or us? Who, then, will be our +Great Tyee?' + +"He stood in the centre of the menacing +circle, his arm folded, his chin raised, his eyes +hard as flint. His voice, cold as stone, replied: + +"'Perhaps she will give you such a manchild, +and, if so, the child is yours; he will +belong to you, not to me; he will become the +possession of the people. But if the child is +a girl she will belong to me--she will be mine. +You cannot take her from me as you took me +from my mother's side and forced me to forget +my aged father in my service to my tribe; +she will belong to me, will be the mother of +my grandchildren, and her husband will be +my son.' + +"'You do not care for the good of your +tribe. You care only for your own wishes and +desires,' they rebelled. 'Suppose the salmon +run is small, we will have no food; suppose +there is no man-child, we will have no Great +Tyee to show us how to get food from other +tribes, and we shall starve.' + +"'Your hearts are black and bloodless,' +thundered the Great Tyee, turning upon them +fiercely, 'and your eyes are blinded. Do you +wish the tribe to forget how great is the importance +of a child that will some day be a +mother herself, and give to your children and +grandchildren a Great Tyee? Are the people +to live, to thrive, to increase, to become more +powerful with no mother-women to bear +future sons and daughters? Your minds are +dead, your brains are chilled. Still, even in +your ignorance, you are my people: you and +your wishes must be considered. I call together +the great medicine men, the men of +witchcraft, the men of magic. They shall decide +the laws which will follow the bearing +of either boy or girl-child. What say you, oh! +mighty men?' + +"Messengers were then sent up and down +the coast, sent far up the Fraser River, and +to the valley lands inland for many leagues, +gathering as they journeyed all the men of +magic that could be found. Never were so +many medicine men in council before. They +built fires and danced and chanted for many +days. They spoke with the gods of the mountains, +with the gods of the sea, then 'the +power' of decision came to them. They were +inspired with a choice to lay before the tribespeople, +and the most ancient medicine man in +all the coast region arose and spoke their +resolution: + +"'The people of the tribe cannot be allowed +to have all things. They want a boy-child +and they want a great salmon run also. They +cannot have both. The Sagalie Tyee has revealed +to us, the great men of magic, that +both these things will make the people arrogant +and selfish. They must choose between +the two.' + +"'Choose, oh! you ignorant tribes-people,' +commanded the Great Tyee. 'The wise men +of our coast have said that the girl-child who +will some day bear children of her own will +also bring abundance of salmon at her birth; +but the boy-child brings to you but himself.' + +"'Let the salmon go,'" shouted the people, +'but give us a future Great Tyee. Give us +the boy-child.' + +"And when the child was born it was a boy. + +"'Evil will fall upon you,' wailed the Great +Tyee. 'You have despised a mother-woman. +You will suffer evil and starvation and hunger +and poverty, oh! foolish tribes-people. Did +you not know how great a girl-child is?' + +"That spring, people from a score of tribes +came up to the Fraser for the salmon run. +They came great distances--from the mountains, +the lakes, the far-off dry lands, but not +one fish entered the vast rivers of the Pacific +Coast. The people had made their choice. +They had forgotten the honor that a mother-child +would have brought them. They were +bereft of their food. They were stricken +with poverty. Through the long winter +that followed they endured hunger and +starvation. Since then our tribe has always +welcomed girl-children--we want no more +lost runs." + +The klootchman lifted her arms from her +paddle as she concluded; her eyes left the +irregular outline of the violet mountains. She +had come back to this year of grace--her +Legend Land had vanished. + +"So," she added, "you see now, maybe, +why I glad my grandchild is girl; it means +big salmon run next year." + +"It is a beautiful story, klootchman," I said, +"and I feel a cruel delight that your men of +magic punished the people for their ill-choice." + +"That because you girl-child yourself," she +laughed. + +There was the slightest whisper of a step +behind me. I turned to find Maarda almost +at my elbow. The rising tide was unbeaching +the canoe, and as Maarda stepped in and the +klootchman slipped astern it drifted afloat. + +"Kla-how-ya," nodded the klootchman as +she dipped her paddle-blade in exquisite +silence. + +"Kla-how-ya," smiled Maarda. + +"Kla-how-ya, tillicums," I replied, and +watched for many moments as they slipped +away into the blurred distance, until the canoe +merged into the violet and grey of the farther +shore. + + + + + +The Deep Waters + +Far over your left shoulder as +your boat leaves the Narrows to +thread the beautiful waterways +that lead to Vancouver Island, +you will see the summit of Mount +Baker robed in its everlasting whiteness and +always reflecting some wonderful glory from +the rising sun, the golden noontide, or the +violet and amber sunset. This is the Mount +Ararat of the Pacific Coast peoples; for those +readers who are familiar with the ways and +beliefs and faiths of primitive races will agree +that it is difficult to discover anywhere in the +world a race that has not some story of the +Deluge, which they have chronicled and localized +to fit the understanding and the conditions +of the nation that composes their own +immediate world. + +Amongst the red nations of America I doubt +if any two tribes have the same ideas regarding +the Flood. Some of the traditions concerning +this vast whim of Nature are grotesque +in the extreme; some are impressive; some +even profound; but of all the stories of the +Deluge that I have been able to collect I know +of not a single one that can even begin to +equal in beauty of conception, let alone rival +in possible reality and truth, the Squamish +legend of "The Deep Waters." + +I here quote the legend of "mine own +people," the Iroquois tribes of Ontario, regarding +the Deluge. I do this to paint the +color of contrast in richer shades, for I am +bound to submit that we who pride ourselves +on ancient intellectuality have but a childish +tale of the Flood when compared with the +jealously preserved annals of the Squamish, +which savour more of history than tradition. +With "mine own people," animals always play +a much more important part and are endowed +with a finer intelligence than humans. I do +not find amid my notes a single tradition of +the Iroquois wherein animals do not figure, +and our story of the Deluge rests entirely with +the intelligence of sea-going and river-going +creatures. With us, animals in olden times +were greater than man; but it is not so with +the Coast Indians, except in rare instances. + +When a Coast Indian consents to tell you a +legend he will, without variation, begin it +with, "It was before the white people came." + +The natural thing for you then to ask is, +"But who were here then?" + +He will reply, "Indians, and just the trees, +and animals, and fishes, and a few birds." + +So you are prepared to accept the animal +world as intelligent co-habitants of the Pacific +slope, but he will not lead you to think he +regards them as equals, much less superiors. +But to revert to "mine own people": they hold +the intelligence of wild animals far above that +of man, for perhaps the one reason that +when an animal is sick it effects its own cure; +it knows what grasses and herbs to eat, what +to avoid, while the sick human calls the medicine +man, whose wisdom is not only the result +of years of study, but also heredity; consequently +any great natural event, such as the +Deluge, has much to do with the wisdom of +the creatures of the forests and the rivers. + +Iroquois tradition tells us that once this +earth was entirely submerged in water, and +during this period for many days a busy little +muskrat swam about vainly looking for a foothold +of earth wherein to build his house. In +his search he encountered a turtle leisurely +swimming about, so they had speech together, +and the muskrat complained of weariness; he +could find no foothold; he was tired of incessant +swimming, and longed for land such as +his ancestors enjoyed. The turtle suggested +that the muskrat should dive and endeavor to +find earth at the bottom of the sea. Acting +on this advice the muskrat plunged down, then +arose with his two little forepaws grasping +some earth he had found beneath the waters. + +"Place it on my shell and dive again for +more," directed the turtle. The muskrat did +so, but when he returned with his paws filled +with earth he discovered the small quantity +he had first deposited on the turtle's shell had +doubled in size. The return from the third +trip found the turtle's load again doubled. So +the building went on at double compound increase, +and the world grew its continents and +its island with great rapidity, and now rests on +the shell of a turtle. + +If you ask an Iroquois, "And did no men +survive this flood?" he will reply, "Why +should men survive? The animals are wiser +than men; let the wisest live." + +How, then, was the earth re-peopled? + +The Iroquois will tell you that the otter +was a medicine man; that in swimming and +diving about he found corpses of men and +women; he sang his medicine songs and they +came to life, and the otter brought them fish +for food until they were strong enough to provide +for themselves. Then the Iroquois will +conclude his tale with, "You know well that +the otter has greater wisdom than a man." + +So much for "mine own people" and our +profound respect for the superior intelligence +of our little brothers of the animal world. + +But the Squamish tribe hold other ideas. +It was on a February day that I first listened +to this beautiful, humane story of the Deluge. +My royal old tillicum had come to see me +through the rains and mists of late winter +days. The gateways of my wigwam always +stood open--very widely open--for his feet to +enter, and this especial day he came with the +worst downpour of the season. + +Womanlike, I protested with a thousand +contradictions in my voice that he should venture +out to see me on such a day. It was "Oh! +Chief, I am so glad to see you!" and it was +"Oh! Chief, why didn't you stay at home on +such a wet day--your poor throat will suffer." +But I soon had quantities of hot tea for him, +and the huge cup my own father always used +was his--as long as the Sagalie Tyee allowed +his dear feet to wander my way. The immense +cup stands idle and empty now for the +second time. + +Helping him off with his great-coat, I +chatted on about the deluge of rain, and he +remarked it was not so very bad, as one could +yet walk. + +"Fortunately, yes, for I cannot swim," I +told him. + +He laughed, replying, "Well, it is not so +bad as when the Great Deep Waters covered +the world." + +Immediately I foresaw the coming legend, +so crept into the shell of monosyllables. + +"No?" I questioned. + +"No," he replied. "For one time there was +no land here at all; everywhere there was just +water." + +"I can quite believe it," I remarked +caustically. + +He laughed--that irresistible, though silent, +David Warfield laugh of his that always +brought a responsive smile from his listeners. +Then he plunged directly into the tradition, +with no preface save a comprehensive sweep +of his wonderful hands towards my wide window, +against which the rains were beating. + +"It was after a long, long time of this--this +rain. The mountain streams were swollen, +the rivers choked, the sea began to rise--and +yet it rained; for weeks and weeks it rained." +He ceased speaking, while the shadows of +centuries gone crept into his eyes. Tales of +the misty past always inspired him. + +"Yes," he continued. "It rained for weeks +and weeks, while the mountain torrents roared +thunderingly down, and the sea crept silently +up. The level lands were first to float in sea +water, then to disappear. The slopes were +next to slip into the sea. The world was +slowly being flooded. Hurriedly the Indian +tribes gathered in one spot, a place of safety +far above the reach of the on-creeping sea. The +spot was the circling shore of Lake Beautiful, +up the North Arm. They held a Great Council +and decided at once upon a plan of action. +A giant canoe should be built, and some means +contrived to anchor it in case the waters +mounted to the heights. The men undertook +the canoe, the women the anchorage. + +"A giant tree was felled, and day and night +the men toiled over its construction into the +most stupendous canoe the world has ever +known. Not an hour, not a moment, but +many worked, while the toil-wearied ones +slept, only to awake to renewed toil. Meanwhile +the women also worked at a cable--the +largest, the longest, the strongest that Indian +hands and teeth had ever made. Scores of +them gathered and prepared the cedar fibre; +scores of them plaited, rolled and seasoned it; +scores of them chewed upon it inch by inch +to make it pliable; scores of them oiled and +worked, oiled and worked, oiled and worked +it into a sea-resisting fabric. And still the +sea crept up, and up, and up. It was the last +day; hope of life for the tribe, of land for the +world, was doomed. Strong hands, self-sacrificing +hands fastened the cable the women +had made--one end to the giant canoe, the +other about an enormous boulder, a vast immovable +rock as firm as the foundations of +the world--for might not the canoe with its +priceless freight drift out, far out, to sea, and +when the water subsided might not this ship +of safety be leagues and leagues beyond the +sight of land on the storm-driven Pacific? + +"Then with the bravest hearts that ever +beat, noble hands lifted every child of the +tribe into this vast canoe; not one single baby +was overlooked. The canoe was stocked with +food and fresh water, and lastly, the ancient +men and women of the race selected as guardians +to these children the bravest, most +stalwart, handsomest young man of the tribe, +and the mother of the youngest baby in the +camp--she was but a girl of sixteen, her child +but two weeks old; but she, too, was brave and +very beautiful. These two were placed, she at +the bow of the canoe to watch, he at the stern +to guide, and all the little children crowded +between. + +"And still the sea crept up, and up, and up. +At the crest of the bluffs about Lake +Beautiful the doomed tribes crowded. Not a +single person attempted to enter the canoe. +There was no wailing, no crying out for +safety. 'Let the little children, the young +mother, and the bravest and best of our young +men live,' was all the farewell those in the +canoe heard as the waters reached the summit, +and--the canoe floated. Last of all to be seen +was the top of the tallest tree, then--all was a +world of water. + +"For days and days there was no land--just +the rush of swirling, snarling sea; but the +canoe rode safely at anchor, the cable those +scores of dead, faithful women had made held +true as the hearts that beat behind the toil +and labor of it all. + +"But one morning at sunrise, far to the +south a speck floated on the breast of the +waters; at midday it was larger; at evening +it was yet larger. The moon arose, and in its +magic light the man at the stern saw it was +a patch of land. All night he watched it +grow, and at daybreak looked with glad eyes +upon the summit of Mount Baker. He cut +the cable, grasped his paddle in his strong, +young hands, and steered for the south. When +they landed, the waters were sunken half down +the mountain side. The children were lifted +out; the beautiful young mother, the stalwart +young brave, turned to each other, clasped +hands, looked into each other's eyes--and +smiled. + +"And down in the vast country that lies +between Mount Baker and the Fraser River +they made a new camp, built new lodges, +where the little children grew and thrived, +and lived and loved, and the earth was repeopled +by them. + +"The Squamish say that in a gigantic +crevice half way to the crest of Mount Baker +may yet be seen the outlines of an enormous +canoe, but I have never seen it myself." + +He ceased speaking with that far-off cadence +in his voice with which he always ended a +legend, and for a long time we both sat in +silence listening to the rains that were still +beating against the window. + + + + + +The Sea-Serpent + +There is one vice that is absolutely +unknown to the red man; he was +born without it, and amongst all +the deplorable things he has +learned from the white races, this, +at least, he has never acquired. That is the +vice of avarice. That the Indian looks upon +greed of gain, miserliness, avariciousness and +wealth accumulated above the head of his +poorer neighbor as one of the lowest degradations +he can fall to is perhaps more aptly illustrated +in this legend than anything I could +quote to demonstrate his horror of what he +calls "the white man's unkindness." In a very +wide and varied experience with many tribes, +I have yet to find even one instance of +avarice, and I have encountered but one +single case of a "stingy Indian," and this man +was so marked amongst his fellows that at +mention of his name his tribes-people jeered +and would remark contemptuously that he was +like a white man--hated to share his money +and his possessions. All red races are born +Socialists, and most tribes carry out their +communistic ideas to the letter. Amongst the +Iroquois it is considered disgraceful to have +food if your neighbor has none. To be a +creditable member of the nation you must +divide your possessions with your less fortunate +fellows. I find it much the same +amongst the Coast Indians, though they are +less bitter in their hatred of the extremes of +wealth and poverty than are the Eastern +tribes. Still, the very fact that they have preserved +this legend, in which they liken avarice +to a slimy sea-serpent, shows the trend of their +ideas; shows, too, that an Indian is an Indian, +no matter what his tribe; shows that he cannot +or will not hoard money; shows that his native +morals demand that the spirit of greed must +be strangled at all cost. + +The Chief and I had sat long over our +luncheon. He had been talking of his trip to +England and of the many curious things he +had seen. At last, in an outburst of enthusiasm, +he said: "I saw everything in the world +--everything but a sea-serpent!" + +"But there is no such thing as a sea-serpent," +I laughed, "so you must have really +seen everything in the world." + +His face clouded; for a moment he sat in +silence; then looking directly at me said, +"Maybe none now, but long ago there was +one here--in the Inlet." + +"How long ago?" I asked. + +"When first the white gold-hunters came," +he replied. "Came with greedy, clutching +fingers, greedy eyes, greedy hearts. The white +men fought, murdered, starved, went mad +with love of that gold far up the Fraser River. +Tillicums were tillicums no more, brothers +were foes, fathers and sons were enemies. +Their love of the gold was a curse." + +"Was it then the sea-serpent was seen?" I +asked, perplexed with the problem of trying +to connect the gold-seekers with such a +monster. + +"Yes, it was then, but----" he hesitated, +then plunged into the assertion, "but you will +not believe the story if you think there is no +such thing as a sea-serpent." + +"I shall believe whatever you tell me, +Chief," I answered; "I am only too ready to +believe. You know I come of a superstitious +race, and all my association with the Palefaces +has never yet robbed me of my birthright to +believe strange traditions." + +"You always understand," he said after a +pause. + +"It's my heart that understands," I remarked +quietly. + +He glanced up quickly, and with one of his +all too few radiant smiles, he laughed. + +"Yes, skookum tum-tum." Then without +further hesitation he told the tradition, which, +although not of ancient happening, is held in +great reverence by his tribe. During its recital +he sat with folded arms, leaning on the +table, his head and shoulders bending eagerly +towards me as I sat at the opposite side. It +was the only time he ever talked to me when +he did not use emphasising gesticulations, but +his hands never once lifted: his wonderful eyes +alone gave expression to what he called "The +Legend of the 'Salt-chuck Oluk'" (sea-serpent). + +"Yes, it was during the first gold craze, and +many of our young men went as guides to +the whites far up the Fraser. When they returned +they brought these tales of greed and +murder back with them, and our old people +and our women shook their heads and said +evil would come of it. But all our young men, +except one, returned as they went--kind to +the poor, kind to those who were foodless, +sharing whatever they had with their tillicums. +But one, by name Shak-shak (The +Hawk), came back with hoards of gold nuggets, +chickimin (money), everything; he was rich like +the white men, and, like them, he kept it. He +would count his chickimin, count his nuggets, +gloat over them, toss them in his palms. He +loved them better than food, better than his +tillicums, better than his life. The entire tribe +arose. They said Shak-shak had the disease +of greed; that to cure it he must give a great +potlatch, divide his riches with the poorer +ones, share them with the old, the sick, the +foodless. But he jeered and laughed and told +them No, and went on loving and gloating +over his gold. + +"Then the Sagalie Tyee spoke out of the +sky and said, 'Shak-shak, you have made of +yourself a loathsome thing; you will not listen +to the cry of the hungry, to the call of the old +and sick; you will not share your possessions; +you have made of yourself an outcast from +your tribe and disobeyed the ancient laws of +your people. Now I will make of you a thing +loathed and hated by all men, both white and +red. You will have two heads, for your greed +has two mouths to bite. One bites the poor, +and one bites your own evil heart--and the +fangs in these mouths are poison, poison that +kills the hungry, and poison that kills your +own manhood. Your evil heart will beat in +the very centre of your foul body, and he that +pierces it will kill the disease of greed forever +from amongst his people.' And when the sun +arose above the North Arm the next morning +the tribes-people saw a gigantic sea-serpent +stretched across the surface of the waters. One +hideous head rested on the bluffs at Brockton +Point, the other rested on a group of rocks +just below Mission, at the western edge of +North Vancouver. If you care to go there +some day I will show you the hollow in one +great stone where that head lay. The tribespeople +were stunned with horror. They +loathed the creature, they hated it, they feared +it. Day after day it lay there, its monstrous +heads lifted out of the waters, its mile-long +body blocking all entrance from the Narrows, +all outlet from the North Arm. The chiefs +made council, the medicine men danced and +chanted, but the salt-chuck oluk never moved. +It could not move, for it was the hated totem +of what now rules the white man's world-- +greed and love of chickimin. No one can ever +move the love of chickimin from the white +man's heart, no one can ever make him divide +all with the poor. But after the chiefs and +medicine men had done all in their power, and +still the salt-chuck oluk lay across the waters, +a handsome boy of sixteen approached them +and reminded them of the words of the +Sagalie Tyee, 'that he that pierced the monster's +heart would kill the disease of greed +forever amongst his people.' + +"'Let me try to find this evil heart, oh! +great men of my tribe,' he cried. 'Let me war +upon this creature; let me try to rid my people +of this pestilence.' + +"The boy was brave and very beautiful. His +tribes-people called him the Tenas Tyee +(Little Chief) and they loved him. Of all +his wealth of fish and furs, of game and +hykwa (large shell money) he gave to the +boys who had none; he hunted food for the +old people; he tanned skins and furs for those +whose feet were feeble, whose eyes were fading, +whose blood ran thin with age. + +"'Let him go!' cried the tribes-people. 'This +unclean monster can only be overcome by +cleanliness, this creature of greed can only +be overthrown by generosity. Let him go!' +The chiefs and the medicine men listened, then +consented. 'Go,' they commanded, 'and fight +this thing with your strongest weapons-- +cleanliness and generosity.' + +"The Tenas Tyee turned to his mother. 'I +shall be gone four days,' he told her, 'and I +shall swim all that time. I have tried all my +life to be generous, but the people say I must +be clean also to fight this unclean thing. While +I am gone put fresh furs on my bed every +day, even if I am not here to lie on them; if I +know my bed, my body and my heart are all +clean I can overcome this serpent.' + +"'Your bed shall have fresh furs every +morning,' his mother said simply. + +"The Tenas Tyee then stripped himself and, +with no clothing save a buckskin belt into +which he thrust his hunting-knife, he flung +his lithe young body into the sea. But at the +end of four days he did not return. Sometimes +his people could see him swimming far +out in mid-channel, endeavoring to find the +exact centre of the serpent, where lay its evil, +selfish heart; but on the fifth morning they +saw him rise out of the sea, climb to the summit +of Brockton Point and greet the rising +sun with outstretched arms. Weeks and +months went by, still the Tenas Tyee would +swim daily searching for that heart of greed; +and each morning the sunrise glinted on his +slender young copper-colored body as he stood +with outstretched arms at the tip of Brockton +Point, greeting the coming day and then +plunging from the summit into the sea. + +"And at his home on the north shore his +mother dressed his bed with fresh furs each +morning. The seasons drifted by, winter +followed summer, summer followed winter. +But it was four years before the Tenas Tyee +found the centre of the great salt-chuck oluk +and plunged his hunting-knife into its evil +heart. In its death-agony it writhed through +the Narrows, leaving a trail of blackness on +the waters. Its huge body began to shrink, to +shrivel; it became dwarfed and withered, until +nothing but the bones of its back remained, +and they, sea-bleached and lifeless, soon sank +to the bed of the ocean leagues off from the +rim of land. But as the Tenas Tyee swam +homeward and his clean, young body crossed +through the black stain left by the serpent, +the waters became clear and blue and sparkling. +He had overcome even the trail of the +salt-chuck oluk. + +"When at last he stood in the doorway of +his home he said, 'My mother, I could not +have killed the monster of greed amongst my +people had you not helped me by keeping one +place for me at home fresh and clean for my +return.' + +"She looked at him as only mothers look. +'Each day these four years, fresh furs have I +laid for your bed. Sleep now, and rest, oh! my +Tenas Tyee,' she said." + +* * * * * * * + +The Chief unfolded his arms, and his voice +took another tone as he said, "What do you +call that story--a legend?" + +"The white people would call it an allegory," +I answered. He shook his head. + +"No savvy," he smiled. + +I explained as simply as possible, and with +his customary alertness he immediately understood. +"That's right," he said. "That's +what we say it means, we Squamish, that +greed is evil and not clean, like the salt-chuck +oluk. That it must be stamped out amongst +our people, killed by cleanliness and generosity. +The boy that overcame the serpent was +both these things." + +"What became of this splendid boy?" I +asked. + +"The Tenas Tyee? Oh! some of our old, +old people say they sometimes see him now, +standing on Brockton Point, his bare young +arms outstretched to the rising sun," he replied. + +"Have you ever seen him, Chief?" I +questioned. + +"No," he answered simply. But I have +never heard such poignant regret as his wonderful +voice crowded into that single word. + + + + + +The Lost Island + +Yes," said my old tillicum, "we +Indians have lost many things. +We have lost our lands, our +forests, our game, our fish; we +have lost our ancient religion, +our ancient dress; some of the younger people +have even lost their fathers' language and the +legends and traditions of their ancestors. We +cannot call those old things back to us; they +will never come again. We may travel many +days up the mountain trails, and look in the +silent places for them. They are not there. +We may paddle many moons on the sea, but +our canoes will never enter the channel that +leads to the yesterdays of the Indian people. +These things are lost, just like 'The Island of +the North Arm.' They may be somewhere +nearby, but no one can ever find them." + +"But there are many islands up the North +Arm," I asserted. + +"Not the island we Indian people have +sought for many tens of summers," he replied +sorrowfully. + +"Was it ever there?" I questioned. + +"Yes, it was there," he said. "My grandsires +and my great-grandsires saw it; but that +was long ago. My father never saw it, though +he spent many days in many years searching, +always searching, for it. I am an old man +myself, and I have never seen it, though from +my youth I, too, have searched. Sometimes +in the stillness of the nights I have paddled +up in my canoe." Then, lowering his voice: +"Twice I have seen its shadow: high rocky +shores, reaching as high as the tree tops on +the mainland, then tall pines and firs on its +summit like a king's crown. As I paddled up +the Arm one summer night, long ago, the +shadow of these rocks and firs fell across my +canoe, across my face, and across the waters +beyond. I turned rapidly to look. There was +no island there, nothing but a wide stretch of +waters on both sides of me, and the moon +almost directly overhead. Don't say it was +the shore that shadowed me," he hastened, +catching my thought. "The moon was above +me; my canoe scarce made a shadow on the +still waters. No, it was not the shore." + +"Why do you search for it?" I lamented, +thinking of the old dreams in my own life +whose realization I have never attained. + +"There is something on that island that I +want. I shall look for it until I die, for it is +there," he affirmed. + +There was a long silence between us after +that. I had learned to love silences when with +my old tillicum, for they always led to a +legend. After a time he began voluntarily: + +"It was more than one hundred years ago. +This great city of Vancouver was but the +dream of the Sagalie Tyee (God) at that time. +The dream had not yet come to the white man; +only one great Indian medicine man knew +that some day a great camp for Palefaces +would lie between False Creek and the Inlet. +This dream haunted him; it came to him night +and day--when he was amid his people +laughing and feasting, or when he was alone +in the forest chanting his strange songs, beating +his hollow drum, or shaking his wooden +witch-rattle to gain more power to cure the +sick and the dying of his tribe. For years this +dream followed him. He grew to be an old, old +man, yet always he could hear voices, strong +and loud, as when they first spoke to him in +his youth, and they would say: 'Between the +two narrow strips of salt water the white men +will camp--many hundreds of them, many +thousands of them. The Indians will learn +their ways, will live as they do, will become +as they are. There will be no more great war +dances, no more fights with other powerful +tribes; it will be as if the Indians had lost all +bravery, all courage, all confidence.' He hated +the voices, he hated the dream; but all his +power, all his big medicine, could not drive +them away. He was the strongest man on all +the North Pacific Coast. He was mighty and +very tall, and his muscles were as those of +Leloo, the timber wolf, when he is strongest +to kill his prey. He could go for many days +without food; he could fight the largest mountain +lion; he could overthrow the fiercest +grizzly bear; he could paddle against the +wildest winds and ride the highest waves. +He could meet his enemies and kill whole +tribes single-handed. His strength, his courage, +his power, his bravery, were those of a +giant. He knew no fear; nothing in the sea, +or in the forest, nothing in the earth or the +sky, could conquer him. He was fearless, fearless. +Only this haunting dream of the coming +white man's camp he could not drive away; it +was the one thing in life he had tried to kill +and failed. It drove him from the feasting, +drove him from the pleasant lodges, the fires, +the dancing, the story-telling of his people in +their camp by the water's edge, where the +salmon thronged and the deer came down to +drink of the mountain streams. He left the +Indian village, chanting his wild songs as he +went. Up through the mighty forests he +climbed, through the trailless deep mosses and +matted vines, up to the summit of what the +white men call Grouse Mountain. For many +days he camped there. He ate no food, he +drank no water, but sat and sang his medicine +songs through the dark hours and through +the day. Before him--far beneath his feet-- +lay the narrow strip of land between the two +salt waters. Then the Sagalie Tyee gave him +the power to see far into the future. He +looked across a hundred years, just as he +looked across what you call the Inlet, and he +saw mighty lodges built close together, hundreds +and thousands of them; lodges of stone +and wood, and long straight trails to divide +them. He saw these trails thronging with +Palefaces; he heard the sound of the white +man's paddle-dip on the waters, for it is not +silent like the Indian's; he saw the white man's +trading posts, saw the fishing nets, heard his +speech. Then the vision faded as gradually +as it came. The narrow strip of land was his +own forest once more. + +"'I am old,' he called, in his sorrow and his +trouble for his people. 'I am old, oh, Sagalie +Tyee! Soon I shall die and go to the Happy +Hunting Grounds of my fathers. Let not my +strength die with me. Keep living for all time +my courage, my bravery, my fearlessness. +Keep them for my people that they may be +strong enough to endure the white man's rule. +Keep my strength living for them; hide it so +that the Paleface may never find or see it.' + +"Then he came down from the summit of +Grouse Mountain. Still chanting his medicine +songs he entered his canoe, and paddled +through the colors of the setting sun far up +the North Arm. When night fell he came to +an island with misty shores of great grey +rock; on its summit tall pines and firs circled +like a king's crown. As he neared it he felt +all his strength, his courage, his fearlessness, +leaving him; he could see these things drift +from him on to the island. They were as the +clouds that rest on the mountains, grey-white +and half transparent. Weak as a woman he +paddled back to the Indian village; he told +them to go and search for 'The Island,' where +they would find all his courage, his fearlessness +and his strength, living, living forever. +He slept then, but--in the morning he did not +awake. Since then our young men and our +old have searched for 'The Island.' It is there +somewhere, up some lost channel, but we cannot +find it. When we do, we will get back +all the courage and bravery we had before the +white man came, for the great medicine man +said those things never die--they live for one's +children and grandchildren." + +His voice ceased. My whole heart went out +to him in his longing for the lost island. I +thought of all the splendid courage I knew +him to possess, so made answer: "But you +say that the shadow of this island has fallen +upon you; is it not so, tillicum?" + +"Yes," he said half mournfully. "But only +the shadow." + + + + + +Point Grey + +Have you ever sailed around Point +Grey?" asked a young Squamish +tillicum of mine who often comes +to see me, to share a cup of tea +and a taste of muck-a-muck, that +otherwise I should eat in solitude. + +"No," I admitted, I had not had that pleasure, +for I did not know the uncertain waters +of English Bay sufficiently well to venture +about its headlands in my frail canoe. + +"Some day, perhaps next summer, I'll take +you there in a sail-boat, and show you the big +rock at the southwest of the Point. It is a +strange rock; we Indian people call it +Homolsom." + +"What an odd name," I commented. "Is it +a Squamish word?--it does not sound to me +like one." + +"It is not altogether Squamish, but half +Fraser River language. The Point was the +dividing line between the grounds and waters +of the two tribes, so they agreed to make the +name 'Homolsom' from the two languages." + +I suggested more tea, and, as he sipped it, +he told me the legend that few of the younger +Indians know. That he believes the story himself +is beyond question, for many times he admitted +having tested the virtues of this rock, +and it had never once failed him. All people +that have to do with water craft are superstitious +about some things, and I freely acknowledge +that times innumerable I have "whistled +up" a wind when dead calm threatened, or +stuck a jack-knife in the mast, and afterwards +watched with great contentment the idle sail +fill, and the canoe pull out to a light breeze. +So, perhaps, I am prejudiced in favor of this +legend of Homolsom Rock, for it strikes a very +responsive chord in that portion of my heart +that has always throbbed for the sea. + +"You know," began my young tillicum, +"that only waters unspoiled by human hands +can be of any benefit. One gains no strength +by swimming in any waters heated or boiled +by fires that men build. To grow strong and +wise one must swim in the natural rivers, the +mountain torrents, the sea, just as the Sagalie +Tyee made them. Their virtues die +when human beings try to improve them by +heating or distilling, or placing even tea in +them, and so--what makes Homolsom Rock +so full of 'good medicine' is that the waters +that wash up about it are straight from the +sea, made by the hand of the Great Tyee, and +unspoiled by the hand of man. + +"It was not always there, that great rock, +drawing its strength and its wonderful power +from the seas, for it, too, was once a Great +Tyee, who ruled a mighty tract of waters. He +was god of all the waters that wash the coast, +of the Gulf of Georgia, of Puget Sound, of the +Straits of Juan de Fuca, of the waters that +beat against even the west coast of Vancouver +Island, and of all the channels that cut between +the Charlotte Islands. He was Tyee +of the West Wind, and his storms and +tempests were so mighty that the Sagalie +Tyee Himself could not control the havoc that +he created. He warred upon all fishing craft, +he demolished canoes and sent men to graves +in the sea. He uprooted forests and drove the +surf on shore heavy with wreckage of despoiled +trees and with beaten and bruised fish. +He did all this to reveal his powers, for he +was cruel and hard of heart, and he would +laugh and defy the Sagalie Tyee, and looking +up to the sky he would call, 'See how +powerful I am, how mighty, how strong; I am +as great as you.' + +"It was at this time that the Sagalie Tyee +in the persons of the Four Men came in the +great canoe up over the river of the Pacific, in +that age thousands of years ago when they +turned the evil into stone, and the kindly into +trees. + +"'Now,' said the god of the West Wind, 'I +can show how great I am. I shall blow a +tempest that these men may not land on my +coast. They shall not ride my seas and sounds +and channels in safety. I shall wreck them +and send their bodies into the great deeps, and +I shall be Sagalie Tyee in their place and +ruler of all the world.' So the god of the +West Wind blew forth his tempests. The +waves arose mountain high, the seas lashed +and thundered along the shores. The roar of +his mighty breath could be heard wrenching +giant limbs from the forest trees, whistling +down the canyons and dealing death and destruction +for leagues and leagues along the +coast. But the canoe containing the Four +Men rode upright through all the heights and +hollows of the seething ocean. No curling +crest or sullen depth could wreck that magic +craft, for the hearts it bore were filled with +kindness for the human race, and kindness +cannot die. + +"It was all rock and dense forest, and +unpeopled; only wild animals and sea birds +sought the shelter it provided from the terrors +of the West Wind; but he drove them out +in sullen anger, and made on this strip of land +his last stand against the Four Men. The +Paleface calls the place Point Grey, but the +Indians yet speak of it as 'The Battle Ground +of the West Wind.' All his mighty forces he +now brought to bear against the oncoming +canoe; he swept great hurricanes about its +stony ledges; he caused the sea to beat and +swirl in tempestuous fury along its narrow +fastnesses, but the canoe came nearer and +nearer, invincible as those shores, and stronger +than death itself. As the bow touched the +land the Four Men arose and commanded the +West Wind to cease his war cry, and, mighty +though he had been, his voice trembled and +sobbed itself into a gentle breeze, then fell to +a whispering note, then faded into exquisite +silence. + +"'Oh, you evil one with the unkind heart,' +cried the Four Men, 'you have been too great +a god for even the Sagalie Tyee to obliterate +you forever, but you shall live on, live now to +serve, not to hinder mankind. You shall turn +into stone where you now stand, and you +shall rise only as men wish you to. Your life +from this day shall be for the good of man, for +when the fisherman's sails are idle and his +lodge is leagues away you shall fill those +sails and blow his craft free, in whatever direction +he desires. You shall stand where you +are through all the thousands upon thousands +of years to come, and he who touches you +with his paddle-blade shall have his desire of +a breeze to carry him home.'" + +My young tillicum had finished his tradition, +and his great solemn eyes regarded me +half-wistfully. + +"I wish you could see Homolsom Rock," +he said. "For that is he who was once the +Tyee of the West Wind." + +"Were you ever becalmed around Point +Grey?" I asked irrelevantly. + +"Often," he replied. "But I paddle up to +the rock and touch it with the tip of my +paddle-blade, and no matter which way I want +to go the wind will blow free for me, if I wait +a little while." + +"I suppose your people all do this?" I +replied. + +"Yes, all of them," he answered. "They +have done it for hundreds of years. You see +the power in it is just as great now as at first, +for the rock feeds every day on the unspoiled +sea that the Sagalie Tyee made." + + + + + +The Tulameen Trail + +Did you ever "holiday" through the +valley lands of the Dry Belt? +Ever spend days and days in a +swinging, swaying coach, behind +a four-in-hand, when "Curly" or +"Nicola Ned" held the ribbons, and tooled his +knowing little leaders and wheelers down +those horrifying mountain trails that wind like +russet skeins of cobweb through the heights +and depths of the Okanagan, the Nicola and +the Similkameen countries? If so, you have +listened to the call of the Skookum Chuck, as +the Chinook speakers call the rollicking, +tumbling streams that sing their way through +the canyons with a music so dulcet, so insistent, +that for many moons the echo of it lingers +in your listening ears, and you will, +through all the years to come, hear the voices +of those mountain rivers calling you to return. + +But the most haunting of all the melodies + +is the warbling laughter of the Tulameen; its +delicate note is far more powerful, more far-reaching +than the throaty thunders of Niagara. +That is why the Indians of the Nicola +country still cling to their old-time story that +the Tulameen carries the spirit of a young girl +enmeshed in the wonders of its winding +course; a spirit that can never free itself from +the canyons, to rise above the heights and follow +its fellows to the Happy Hunting +Grounds, but which is contented to entwine +its laughter, its sobs, its lonely whispers, its +still lonelier call for companionship, with the +wild music of the waters that sing forever beneath +the western stars. + +As your horses plod up and up the almost +perpendicular trail that leads out of the Nicola +Valley to the summit, a paradise of beauty +outspreads at your feet; the color is indescribable +in words, the atmosphere thrills you. +Youth and the pulse of rioting blood are yours +again, until, as you near the heights, you become +strangely calmed by the voiceless silence +of it all, a silence so holy that it seems the +whole world about you is swinging its censer +before an altar in some dim remote cathedral! +The choir voices of the Tulameen are yet very +far away across the summit, but the heights +of the Nicola are the silent prayer that holds +the human soul before the first great chords +swell down from the organ loft. In this first +long climb up miles and miles of trail, even +the staccato of the drivers' long black-snake +whip is hushed. He lets his animals pick their +own sure-footed way, but once across the +summit he gathers the reins in his steely fingers, +gives a low, quick whistle, the whiplash +curls about the ears of the leaders and the +plunge down the dip of the mountain begins. +Every foot of the way is done at a gallop. +The coach rocks and swings as it dashes +through a trail rough-hewn from the heart of +the forest; at times the angles are so abrupt +that you cannot see the heads of the leaders +as they swing around the grey crags that almost +scrape the tires on the left, while within +a foot of the rim of the trail the right wheels +whirl along the edge of a yawning canyon. +The rhythms of the hoof-beats, the recurrent +low whistle and crack of the whiplash, the +occasional rattle of pebbles showering down +to the depths, loosened by rioting wheels, +have broken the sacred silence. Yet above +all those nearby sounds there seems to be an +indistinct murmur, which grows sweeter, +more musical, as you gain the base of the +mountains, where it rises above all harsher +notes. It is the voice of the restless Tulameen +as it dances and laughs through the rocky +throat of the canyon, three hundred feet below. +Then, following the song, comes a +glimpse of the river itself--white garmented +in the film of its countless rapids, its showers +of waterfalls. It is as beautiful to look at as +to listen to, and it is here, where the trail +winds about and above it for leagues, that the +Indians say it caught the spirit of the maiden +that is still interlaced in its loveliness. + +It was in one of the terrible battles that +raged between the valley tribes before the +white man's footprints were seen along these +trails. None can now tell the cause of this +warfare, but the supposition is that it was +merely for tribal supremacy--that primeval +instinct that assails the savage in both man +and beast, that drives the hill men to bloodshed +and the leaders of buffalo herds to conflict. +It is the greed to rule; the one barbarous +instinct that civilization has never yet +been able to eradicate from armed nations. +This war of the tribes of the valley lands was +of years in duration; men fought and women +mourned, and children wept, as all have done +since time began. It seemed an unequal +battle, for the old experienced war-tried chief +and his two astute sons were pitted against a +single young Tulameen brave. Both factions +had their loyal followers, both were indomitable +as to courage and bravery, both were +determined and ambitious, both were skilled +fighters. + +But on the older man's side were experience +and two other wary, strategic brains to help +him, while on the younger was but the advantage +of splendid youth and unconquerable +persistence. But at every pitched battle, at +every skirmish, at every single-handed conflict +the younger man gained little by little, +the older man lost step by step. The experience +of age was gradually but inevitably giving +way to the strength and enthusiasm of +youth. Then one day they met face to face +and alone--the old war-scarred chief, the +young battle-inspired brave. It was an unequal +combat, and at the close of a brief but +violent struggle the younger had brought the +older to his knees. Standing over him with +up-poised knife the Tulameen brave laughed +sneeringly, and said: + +"Would you, my enemy, have this victory +as your own? If so, I give it to you; but in +return for my submission I demand of you-- +your daughter." + +For an instant the old chief looked in wonderment +at his conqueror; he thought of his +daughter only as a child who played about the +forest trails or sat obediently beside her +mother in the lodge, stitching her little moccasins +or weaving her little baskets. + +"My daughter!" he answered sternly. "My +daughter--who is barely out of her own cradle +basket--give her to you, whose hands are +blood-dyed with the killing of a score of my +tribe? You ask for this thing?" + +"I do not ask it," replied the young brave. +"I demand it; I have seen the girl and I shall +have her." + +The old chief sprang to his feet and spat +out his refusal. "Keep your victory, and I +keep my girl-child," though he knew he was +not only defying his enemy, but defying death +as well. + +The Tulameen laughed lightly, easily. "I +shall not kill the sire of my wife," he taunted. +"One more battle must we have, but your +girl-child will come to me." + +Then he took his victorious way up the +trail, while the old chief walked with slow and +springless step down into the canyon. + +The next morning the chief's daughter was +loitering along the heights, listening to the +singing river, and sometimes leaning over the +precipice to watch its curling eddies and +dancing waterfalls. Suddenly she heard a +slight rustle, as though some passing bird's +wing had clipt the air. Then at her feet there +fell a slender, delicately shaped arrow. It fell +with spent force, and her Indian woodcraft +told her it had been shot to her, not at her. +She started like a wild animal. Then her +quick eye caught the outline of a handsome, +erect figure that stood on the heights across +the river. She did not know him as her +father's enemy. She only saw him to be +young, stalwart and of extraordinary, manly +beauty. The spirit of youth and of a certain +savage coquetry awoke within her. Quickly +she fitted one of her own dainty arrows to +the bow string and sent it winging across the +narrow canyon; it fell, spent, at his feet, and +he knew she had shot it to him, not at him. + +Next morning, woman-like, she crept noiselessly +to the brink of the heights. Would she +see him again--that handsome brave? Would +he speed another arrow to her? She had not +yet emerged from the tangle of forest before +it fell, its faint-winged flight heralding its +coming. Near the feathered end was tied a +tassel of beautiful ermine tails. She took from +her wrist a string of shell beads, fastened it to +one of her little arrows and winged it across +the canyon, as yesterday. + +The following morning before leaving the +ledge she fastened the tassel of ermine tails in +her straight, black hair. Would he see them? +But no arrow fell at her feet that day, but a +clearer message was there on the brink of the +precipice. He himself awaited her coming-- +he who had never left her thoughts since that +first arrow came to her from his bow-string. +His eyes burned with warm fires, as she approached, +but his lips said simply: "I have +crossed the Tulameen River." Together they +stood, side by side, and looked down at the +depths before them, watching in silence the +little torrent rollicking and roystering over its +boulders and crags. + +"That is my country," he said, looking +across the river. "This is the country of your +father, and of your brothers; they are my +enemies. I return to my own shore tonight. +Will you come with me?" + +She looked up into his handsome young face. +So this was her father's foe--the dreaded +Tulameen! + +"Will you come?" he repeated. + +"I will come," she whispered. + +It was in the dark of the moon and through +the kindly night he led her far up the rocky +shores to the narrow belt of quiet waters, +where they crossed in silence into his own +country. A week, a month, a long golden +summer, slipped by, but the insulted old chief +and his enraged sons failed to find her. + +Then one morning as the lovers walked together +on the heights above the far upper +reaches of the river, even the ever-watchful +eyes of the Tulameen failed to detect the lurking +enemy. Across the narrow canyon +crouched and crept the two outwitted brothers +of the girl-wife at his side; their arrows +were on their bow-strings, their hearts on fire +with hatred and vengeance. Like two evil-winged +birds of prey those arrows sped across +the laughing river, but before they found their +mark in the breast of the victorious Tulameen +the girl had unconsciously stepped before him. +With a little sigh, she slipped into his arms, +her brothers' arrows buried into her soft, +brown flesh. + +It was many a moon before his avenging +hand succeeded in slaying the old chief and +those two hated sons of his. But when this +was finally done the handsome young Tulameen +left his people, his tribe, his country, and +went into the far north. "For," he said, as +he sang his farewell war song, "my heart lies +dead in the Tulameen River." + + * * * * * + +But the spirit of his girl-wife still sings +through the canyon, its song blending with +the music of that sweetest-voiced river in all +the great valleys of the Dry Belt. That is +why this laughter, the sobbing murmur of the +beautiful Tulameen will haunt for evermore +the ear that has once listened to its song. + + + + + +The Grey Archway + +The steamer, like a huge shuttle, +wove in and out among the countless +small islands; its long trailing +scarf of grey smoke hung heavily +along the uncertain shores, casting +a shadow over the pearly waters of the +Pacific, which sung lazily from rock to rock +in indescribable beauty. + +After dinner I wandered astern with the +traveller's ever-present hope of seeing the +beauties of a typical Northern sunset, and by +some happy chance I placed my deck stool +near an old tillicum, who was leaning on the +rail, his pipe between his thin curved lips, his +brown hands clasped idly, his sombre eyes +looking far out to sea, as though they searched +the future--or was it that they were seeing +the past? + +"Kla-how-ya, tillicum!" I greeted + +He glanced round, and half smiled. + +"Kla-how-ya, tillicum!" he replied, with the +warmth of friendliness I have always met with +among the Pacific tribes. + +I drew my deck stool nearer to him, and he +acknowledged the action with another half +smile, but did not stir from his entrenchment, +remaining as if hedged about with an inviolable +fortress of exclusiveness. Yet I knew +that my Chinook salutation would be a drawbridge +by which I might hope to cross the +moat into his castle of silence. + +Indian-like, he took his time before continuing +the acquaintance. Then he began in most +excellent English: + +"You do not know these Northern waters?" + +I shook my head. + +After many moments he leaned forward, +looking along the curve of the deck, up the +channels and narrows we were threading, to +a broad strip of waters off the port bow. Then +he pointed, with that peculiar, thoroughly +Indian gesture of the palm, uppermost. + +"Do you see it--over there? The small +island? It rests on the edge of the water, like +a grey gull." + +It took my unaccustomed eyes some moments +to discern it; then all at once I caught its +outline, veiled in the mists of distance--grey, +cobwebby, dreamy. + +"Yes," I replied, "I see it now. You will +tell me of it--tillicum?" + +He gave a swift glance at my dark skin, +then nodded. "You are one of us," he said, +with evidently no thought of a possible contradiction. +"And you will understand, or I +should not tell you. You will not smile at the +story, for you are one of us." + +"I am one of you, and I shall understand," +I answered. + +It was a full half-hour before we neared the +island, yet neither of us spoke during that +time; then, as the "grey gull" shaped itself +into rock and tree and crag, I noticed in the +very centre a stupendous pile of stone lifting +itself skyward, without fissure or cleft; but a +peculiar haziness about the base made me +peer narrowly to catch the perfect outline. + +"It is the 'Grey Archway,'" he explained, +simply. + +Only then did I grasp the singular formation +before us; the rock was a perfect archway, +through which we could see the placid +Pacific shimmering in the growing colors of +the coming sunset at the opposite rim of the +island. + +"What a remarkable whim of Nature!" I +exclaimed, but his brown hand was laid in a +contradictory grasp on my arm, and he +snatched up my comment almost with impatience. + +"No, it was not Nature," he said. "That is +the reason I say you will understand--you +are one of us--you will know what I tell you +is true. The Great Tyee did not make that +archway, it was--" here his voice lowered-- +"it was magic, red man's medicine and magic +--you savvy?" + +"Yes," I said. "Tell me, for I--savvy." + +"Long time ago," he began, stumbling into +a half-broken English language, because, I +think, of the atmosphere and environment, +"long before you were born, or your father, +or grandfather, or even his father, this strange +thing happened. It is a story for women to +hear, to remember. Women are the future +mothers of the tribe, and we of the Pacific +Coast hold such in high regard, in great reverence. +The women who are mothers--o-ho!-- +they are the important ones we say. Warriors, +fighters, brave men, fearless daughters, +owe their qualities to these mothers--eh, is it +not always so?" + +I nodded silently. The island was swinging +nearer to us, the "Grey Archway" loomed almost +above us, the mysticism crowded close, it +enveloped me, caressed me, appealed to me. + +"And?" I hinted. + +"And," he proceeded, "this 'Grey Archway' +is a story of mothers, of magic, of witchcraft, +of warriors, of--love." + +An Indian rarely uses the word "love," and +when he does it expresses every quality, every +attribute, every intensity, emotion and passion +embraced in those four little letters. Surely +this was an exceptional story I was to hear. + +I did not answer, only looked across the +pulsing waters toward the "Grey Archway," +which the sinking sun was touching with soft +pastels, tints one could give no name to, +beauties impossible to describe. + +"You have not heard of Yaada?" he questioned. +Then fortunately he continued without +waiting for a reply. He well knew that I +had never heard of Yaada, so why not begin +without preliminary to tell me of her?--so-- + +"Yaada was the loveliest daughter of the +Haida tribe. Young braves from all the islands, +from the mainland, from the upper Skeena +country came, hoping to carry her to their far-off +lodges, but they always returned alone. +She was the most desired of all the island +maidens, beautiful, brave, modest, the daughter +of her own mother. + +"But there was a great man, a very great +man--a medicine man, skilful, powerful, influential, +old, deplorably old, and very, very +rich; he said, 'Yaada shall be my wife.' And +there was a young fisherman, handsome, loyal, +boyish, poor, oh! very poor, and gloriously +young, and he, too, said, 'Yaada shall be my +wife.' + +"But Yaada's mother sat apart and thought +and dreamed, as mothers will. She said to +herself, 'The great medicine man has power, +has vast riches, and wonderful magic, why +not give her to him? But Ulka has the boy's +heart, the boy's beauty, he is very brave, very +strong; why not give her to him?' + +"But the laws of the great Haida tribe prevailed. +Its wise men said, 'Give the girl to +the greatest man, give her to the most powerful, +the richest. The man of magic must have +his choice.' + +"But at this the mother's heart grew as +wax in the summer sunshine--it is a strange +quality that mothers' hearts are made of! +'Give her to the best man--the man her heart +holds highest,' said this Haida mother. + +"Then Yaada spoke: 'I am the daughter +of my tribe; I would judge of men by their +excellence. He who proves most worthy I +shall marry; it is not riches that make a good +husband; it is not beauty that makes a good +father for one's children. Let me and my tribe +see some proof of the excellence of these two +men--then, only, shall I choose who is to be +the father of my children. Let us have a trial +of their skill; let them show me how evil or +how beautiful is the inside of their hearts. +Let each of them throw a stone with some +intent, some purpose in their hearts. He who +makes the noblest mark may call me wife.' + +"'Alas! Alas!' wailed the Haida mother +'This casting of stones does not show worth. +It but shows prowess.' + +"'But I have implored the Sagalie Tyee +of my father, and of his fathers before him, +to help me to judge between them by this +means,' said the girl. 'So they must cast the +stones. In this way only shall I see their +innermost hearts.' + +"The medicine man never looked so old as +at that moment; so hopelessly old, so wrinkled, +so palsied: he was no mate for Yaada. Ulka +never looked so god-like in his young beauty, +so gloriously young, so courageous. The girl, +looking at him, loved him--almost was she +placing her hand in his, but the spirit of her +forefathers halted her. She had spoken the +word--she must abide by it. 'Throw!' she +commanded. + +"Into his shrivelled fingers the great medicine +man took a small, round stone, chanting +strange words of magic all the while; his +greedy eyes were on the girl, his greedy +thoughts about her. + +"Into his strong, young fingers Ulka took a +smooth, flat stone; his handsome eyes were +lowered in boyish modesty, his thoughts were +worshipping her. The great medicine man +cast his missile first; it swept through the air +like a shaft of lightning, striking the great +rock with a force that shattered it. At the +touch of that stone the 'Grey Archway' opened +and has remained opened to this day. + +"'Oh, wonderful power and magic!' clamored +the entire tribe. 'The very rocks do his +bidding.' + +"But Yaada stood with eyes that burned in +agony. Ulka could never command such +magic--she knew it. But at her side Ulka was +standing erect, tall, slender and beautiful, but +just as he cast his missile the evil voice of the +old medicine man began a still more evil incantation. +He fixed his poisonous eyes on the +younger man, eyes with hideous magic in their +depths--ill-omened and enchanted with 'bad +medicine.' The stone left Ulka's fingers; +for a second it flew forth in a straight line, +then as the evil voice of the old man grew +louder in its incantations the stone curved. +Magic had waylaid the strong arm of the +young brave. The stone poised an instant +above the forehead of Yaada's mother, then +dropped with the weight of many mountains, +and the last long sleep fell upon her. + +"'Slayer of my mother!' stormed the girl, +her suffering eyes fixed upon the medicine +man. 'Oh, I now see your black heart through +your black magic. Through good magic you +cut the 'Grey Archway,' but your evil magic +you used upon young Ulka. I saw your +wicked eyes upon him; I heard your +wicked incantations; I know your wicked +heart. You used your heartless magic in +hope of winning me--in hope of making +him an outcast of the tribe. You cared not for +my sorrowing heart, my motherless life to +come.' Then, turning to the tribe, she demanded: +'Who of you saw his evil eyes fixed +on Ulka? Who of you heard his evil song?' + +"'I,' and 'I,' and 'I,' came voice after voice. + +"'The very air is poisoned that we breathe +about him,' they shouted. 'The young man +is blameless, his heart is as the sun, but the +man who has used his evil magic has a heart +black and cold as the hours before the dawn.' + +"Then Yaada's voice arose in a strange, +sweet, sorrowful chant: + + +My feet shall walk no more upon this island, + + With its great, Grey Archway. + +My mother sleeps forever on this island, + + With its great, Grey Archway. + +My heart would break without her on this island, + + With its great, Grey Archway. + + +My life was of her life upon this island, + + With its great, Grey Archway. + +My mother's soul has wandered from this island, + + With its great, Grey Archway. + +My feet must follow hers beyond this island, + + With its great, Grey Archway. + + +"As Yaada chanted and wailed her farewell, +she moved slowly towards the edge of +the cliff. On its brink she hovered a moment +with outstretched arms, as a sea gull poises +on its weight--then she called: + +"'Ulka, my Ulka! Your hand is innocent +of wrong; it was the evil magic of your rival +that slew my mother. I must go to her; even +you cannot keep me here; will you stay, or +come with me? Oh! my Ulka!" + +"The slender, gloriously young boy sprang +toward her; their hands closed one within the +other; for a second they poised on the brink +of the rocks, radiant as stars; then together +they plunged into the sea." + + * * * * * * * + +The legend was ended. Long ago we had +passed the island with its "Grey Archway"; it +was melting into the twilight, far astern. + +As I brooded over this strange tale of a +daughter's devotion, I watched the sea and +sky for something that would give me a clue +to the inevitable sequel that the tillicum, like +all his race, was surely withholding until the +opportune moment. + +Something flashed through the darkening +waters not a stone's throw from the steamer. +I leaned forward, watching it intently. Two +silvery fish were making a succession of little +leaps and plunges along the surface of the sea, +their bodies catching the last tints of sunset, +like flashing jewels. I looked at the tillicum +quickly. He was watching me--a world of +anxiety in his half-mournful eyes. + +"And those two silvery fish?" I questioned. + +He smiled. The anxious look vanished. "I +was right," he said; "you do know us and our +ways, for you are one of us. Yes, those fish +are seen only in these waters; there are never +but two of them. They are Yaada and her +mate, seeking for the soul of the Haida woman +--her mother." + + + + + +Deadman's Island + +It is dusk on the Lost Lagoon, +And we two dreaming the dusk away, +Beneath the drift of a twilight grey-- +Beneath the drowse of an ending day +And the curve of a golden moon. + +It is dark in the Lost Lagoon, +And gone are the depths of haunting blue, +The grouping gulls, and the old canoe, +The singing firs, and the dusk and--you, +And gone is the golden moon. + +O! lure of the Lost Lagoon-- +I dream tonight that my paddle blurs +The purple shade where the seaweed stirs-- +I hear the call of the singing firs +In the hush of the golden moon. + +For many minutes we stood silently, +leaning on the western rail of +the bridge as we watched the +sun set across that beautiful little +basin of water known as Coal +Harbor. I have always resented that jarring, +unattractive name, for years ago, when I first +plied paddle across the gunwale of a light +little canoe that idled above its margin, I +named the sheltered little cove the Lost Lagoon. +This was just to please my own fancy, +for as that perfect summer month drifted on, +the ever-restless tides left the harbor devoid +of water at my favorite canoeing hour, and +my pet idling place was lost for many days-- +hence my fancy to call it the Lost Lagoon. +But the chief, Indian-like, immediately adopted +the name, at least when he spoke of the +place to me, and as we watched the sun slip +behind the rim of firs, he expressed the wish +that his dugout were here instead of lying +beached at the farther side of the park. + +"If canoe was here, you and I we paddle +close to shores all 'round your Lost Lagoon: +we make track just like half moon. Then we +paddle under this bridge, and go channel between +Deadman's Island and park. Then +'round where cannon speak time at nine +o'clock. Then 'cross Inlet to Indian side of +Narrows." + +I turned to look eastward, following in +fancy the course he had sketched; the waters +were still as the footstep of the oncoming twilight, +and, floating in a pool of soft purple, +Deadman's Island rested like a large circle of +candle moss. + +"Have you ever been on it?" he asked as +he caught my gaze centering on the irregular +outline of the island pines. + +"I have prowled the length and depth of it," +I told him. "Climbed over every rock on its +shores, crept under every tangled growth of +its interior, explored its overgrown trails, and +more than once nearly got lost in its very +heart." + +"Yes," he half laughed, "it pretty wild; not +much good for anything." + +"People seem to think it valuable," I said. +"There is a lot of litigation--of fighting going +on now about it." + +"Oh! that the way always," he said as +though speaking of a long accepted fact. "Always +fight over that place. Hundreds of +years ago they fight about it; Indian people; +they say hundreds of years to come everybody +will still fight--never be settled what that +place is, who it belong to, who has right to it. +No, never settle. Deadman's Island always +mean fight for someone." + +"So the Indians fought amongst themselves +about it?" I remarked, seemingly without +guile, although my ears tingled for the legend +I knew was coming. + +"Fought like lynx at close quarters," he +answered. "Fought, killed each other, until +the island ran with blood redder than that +sunset, and the sea water about it was stained +flame color--it was then, my people say, that +the scarlet fire-flower was first seen growing +along this coast." + +"It is a beautiful color--the fire-flower," I +said. + +"It should be fine color, for it was born and +grew from the hearts of fine tribes-people-- +very fine people," he emphasized. + +We crossed to the eastern rail of the bridge, +and stood watching the deep shadows that +gathered slowly and silently about the island; +I have seldom looked upon anything more +peaceful. + +The chief sighed. "We have no such men +now, no fighters like those men, no hearts, no +courage like theirs. But I tell you the story; +you understand it then. Now all peace; tonight +all good tillicums; even dead man's spirit +does not fight now, but long time after it +happen those spirits fought." + +"And the legend?" I ventured. + +"Oh! yes," he replied, as if suddenly returning +to the present from out a far country in +the realm of time. "Indian people, they call +it the 'Legend of the Island of Dead Men.' + +"There was war everywhere. Fierce tribes +from the northern coast, savage tribes from +the south all met here and battled and raided, +burned and captured, tortured and killed their +enemies. The forests smoked with camp fires, +the Narrows were choked with war canoes, +and the Sagalie Tyee--He who is a man of +peace--turned His face away from His Indian +children. About this island there was dispute +and contention. The medicine men from the +North claimed it as their chanting ground. +The medicine men from the South laid equal +claim to it. Each wanted it as the stronghold +of their witchcraft, their magic. Great bands +of these medicine men met on the small space, +using every sorcery in their power to drive +their opponents away. The witch doctors of +the North made their camp on the northern +rim of the island; those from the South settled +along the southern edge, looking towards +what is now the great city of Vancouver. +Both factions danced, chanted, burned their +magic powders, built their magic fires, beat +their magic rattles, but neither would give +way, yet neither conquered. About them, on +the waters, on the mainlands, raged the warfare +of their respective tribes--the Sagalie +Tyee had forgotten His Indian children. + +"After many months, the warriors on both +sides weakened. They said the incantations +of the rival medicine men were bewitching +them, were making their hearts like children's, +and their arms nerveless as women's. So +friend and foe arose as one man and drove the +medicine men from the island, hounded them +down the Inlet, herded them through the Narrows +and banished them out to sea, where +they took refuge on one of the outer islands +of the gulf. Then the tribes once more fell +upon each other in battle. + +"The warrior blood of the North will always +conquer. They are the stronger, bolder, more +alert, more keen. The snows and the ice of +their country make swifter pulse than the +sleepy suns of the South can awake in a man; +their muscles are of sterner stuff, their endurance +greater. Yes, the northern tribes will always +be victors.* But the craft and the strategy +of the southern tribes are hard things to battle +against. While those of the North followed +the medicine men farther out to sea to make +sure of their banishment, those from the South +returned under cover of night and seized the +women and children and the old, enfeebled +men in their enemy's camp, transported them +all to the Island of Dead Men, and there held +them as captives. Their war canoes circled +the island like a fortification, through which +drifted the sobs of the imprisoned women, the +mutterings of the aged men, the wail of little +children. + +"Again and again the men of the North +assailed that circle of canoes, and again and +again were repulsed. The air was thick with +poisoned arrows, the water stained with blood. +But day by day the circle of southern canoes +grew thinner and thinner; the northern arrows +were telling and truer of aim. Canoes drifted +everywhere, empty, or worse still, manned +only by dead men. The pick of the southern +warriors had already fallen, when their greatest +Tyee mounted a large rock on the eastern +shore. Brave and unmindful of a thousand +weapons aimed at his heart, he uplifted his + + +* Note.--It would almost seem that the chief knew that +wonderful poem of "The Khan's," "The Men of the Northern Zone," +wherein he says: + + If ever a Northman lost a throne + + Did the conqueror come from the South? + + Nay, the North shall ever be free . . . etc. + +hand, palm outward--the signal for conference. +Instantly every northern arrow was +lowered, and every northern ear listened for +his words. + +"'Oh! men of the upper coast,' he said, 'you +are more numerous than we are; your tribe +is larger; your endurance greater. We are +growing hungry, we are growing less in numbers. +Our captives--your women and children +and old men--have lessened, too, our stores of +food. If you refuse our terms we will yet +fight to the finish. Tomorrow we will kill all +our captives before your eyes, for we can feed +them no longer, or you can have your wives, +your mothers, your fathers, your children, by +giving us for each and every one of them one +of your best and bravest young warriors, who +will consent to suffer death in their stead. +Speak! You have your choice.' + +"In the northern canoes scores and scores +of young warriors leapt to their feet. The air +was filled with glad cries, with exultant +shouts. The whole world seemed to ring with +the voices of those young men who called +loudly, with glorious courage: + +"'Take me, but give me back my old father.' + +"'Take me, but spare to my tribe my little +sister.' + +"'Take me, but release my wife and boy-baby.' + +"So the compact was made. Two hundred +heroic, magnificent young men paddled up to +the island, broke through the fortifying circle +of canoes and stepped ashore. They flaunted +their eagle plumes with the spirit and boldness +of young gods. Their shoulders were erect, their +step was firm, their hearts strong. Into their +canoes they crowded the two hundred captives. +Once more their women sobbed, their old +men muttered, their children wailed, but those +young copper-colored gods never flinched, +never faltered. Their weak and their feeble +were saved. What mattered to them such a +little thing as death? + +"The released captives were quickly surrounded +by their own people, but the flower +of their splendid nation was in the hands of +their enemies, those valorous young men who +thought so little of life that they willingly, +gladly laid it down to serve and to save those +they loved and cared for. Amongst them were +war-tried warriors who had fought fifty +battles, and boys not yet full grown, who were +drawing a bow string for the first time, but +their hearts, their courage, their self-sacrifice +were as one. + +"Out before a long file of southern warriors +they stood. Their chins uplifted, their eyes +defiant, their breasts bared. Each leaned forward +and laid his weapons at his feet, then +stood erect, with empty hands, and laughed +forth their challenge to death. A thousand +arrows ripped the air, two hundred gallant +northern throats flung forth a death cry exultant, +triumphant as conquering kings--then +two hundred fearless northern hearts ceased +to beat. + +"But in the morning the southern tribes +found the spot where they fell peopled with +flaming fire-flowers. Dread terror seized upon +them. They abandoned the island, and when +night again shrouded them they manned their +canoes and noiselessly slipped through the +Narrows, turned their bows southward and +this coast line knew them no more." + +"What glorious men," I half whispered as +the chief concluded the strange legend. + +"Yes, men!" he echoed. "The white people +call it Deadman's Island. That is their way; +but we of the Squamish call it The Island of +Dead Men." + +The clustering pines and the outlines of the +island's margin were now dusky and indistinct. +Peace, peace lay over the waters, and the +purple of the summer twilight had turned to +grey, but I knew that in the depths of the +undergrowth on Deadman's Island there blossomed +a flower of flaming beauty; its colors +were veiled in the coming nightfall, but somewhere +down in the sanctuary of its petals +pulsed the heart's blood of many and valiant +men. + + + + + +A Squamish Legend of +Napoleon + +Holding an important place among +the majority of curious tales held +in veneration by the coast tribes +are those of the sea-serpent. The +monster appears and reappears with +almost monotonous frequency in connection +with history, traditions, legends and superstitions; +but perhaps the most wonderful part it +ever played was in the great drama that held +the stage of Europe, and incidentally all the +world during the stormy days of the first +Napoleon. + +Throughout Canada I have never failed to +find an amazing knowledge of Napoleon Bonaparte +amongst the very old and "uncivilized" +Indians. Perhaps they may be unfamiliar with +every other historical character from Adam +down, but they will all tell you they have +heard of the "Great French Fighter," as they +call the wonderful little Corsican. + +Whether this knowledge was obtained +through the fact that our earliest settlers and +pioneers were French, or whether Napoleon's +almost magical fighting career attracted the +Indian mind to the exclusion of lesser warriors, +I have never yet decided. But the fact +remains that the Indians of our generation are +not as familiar with Bonaparte's name as were +their fathers and grandfathers, so either the +predominance of English-speaking settlers or +the thinning of their ancient war-loving blood +by modern civilization and peaceful times, +must one or the other account for the younger +Indian's ignorance of the Emperor of the +French. + +In telling me the legend of The Lost Talisman, +my good tillicum, the late Chief Capilano, +began the story with the almost amazing +question, Had I ever heard of Napoleon Bonaparte? +It was some moments before I just +caught the name, for his English, always +quaint and beautiful, was at times a little halting; +but when he said by way of explanation, +"You know big fighter, Frenchman. The English +they beat him in big battle," I grasped +immediately of whom he spoke. + +"What do you know of him?" I asked. + +His voice lowered, almost as if he spoke a +state secret. "I know how it is that English +they beat him." + +I have read many historians on this event, +but to hear the Squamish version was a novel +and absorbing thing. "Yes?" I said--my usual +"leading" word to lure him into channels of +tradition. + +"Yes," he affirmed. Then, still in a half +whisper, he proceeded to tell me that it all +happened through the agency of a single joint +from the vertebra of a sea-serpent. + +In telling me the story of Brockton Point +and the valiant boy who killed the monster, he +dwelt lightly on the fact that all people who +approach the vicinity of the creature are +palsied, both mentally and physically--bewitched, +in fact--so that their bones become +disjointed and their brains incapable; but today +he elaborated upon this peculiarity until +I harked back to the boy of Brockton Point +and asked how it was that his body and brain +escaped this affliction. + +"He was all good, and had no greed," he replied. +"He proof against all bad things." + +I nodded understandingly, and he proceeded +to tell me that all successful Indian +fighters and warriors carried somewhere about +their person a joint of a sea-serpent's vertebra, +that the medicine men threw "the power" +about them so that they were not personally +affected by this little "charm," but that immediately +they approached an enemy the "charm" +worked disaster, and victory was assured the +fortunate possessor of the talisman. There +was one particularly effective joint that had +been treasured and carried by the warriors of +a great Squamish family for a century. These +warriors had conquered every foe they encountered, +until the talisman had become so +renowned that the totem pole of their entire +"clan" was remodelled, and the new one +crested by the figure of a single joint of a sea-serpent's +vertebra. + +About this time stories of Napoleon's first +great achievements drifted across the seas; not +across the land--and just here may be a clue +to buried, coast-Indian history, which those +who are cleverer at research than I, can puzzle +over. The chief was most emphatic about the +source of Indian knowledge of Napoleon. + +"I suppose you heard of him from Quebec, +through, perhaps, some of the French priests," +I remarked. + +"No, no," he contradicted hurriedly. "Not +from East; we hear it from over the Pacific, +from the place they call Russia." But who +conveyed the news or by what means it came +he could not further enlighten me. But a +strange thing happened to the Squamish +family about this time. There was a large +blood connection, but the only male member +living was a very old warrior, the hero of +many battles, and the possessor of the talisman. +On his death-bed his women of three +generations gathered about him; his wife, his +sisters, his daughters, his granddaughters, but +not one man, nor yet a boy of his own blood +stood by to speed his departing warrior spirit +to the land of peace and plenty. + +"The charm cannot rest in the hands of +women," he murmured almost with his last +breath. "Women may not war and fight other +nations or other tribes; women are for the +peaceful lodge and for the leading of little +children. They are for holding baby hands, +teaching baby feet to walk. No, the charm +cannot rest with you, women. I have no +brother, no cousin, no son, no grandson, and +the charm must not go to a lesser warrior +than I. None of our tribe, nor of any tribe on +the coast, ever conquered me. The charm +must go to one as unconquerable as I have +been. When I am dead send it across the +great salt chuck, to the victorious 'Frenchman'; +they call him Napoleon Bonaparte." +They were his last words. + +The older women wished to bury the charm +with him, but the younger women, inspired +with the spirit of their generation, were +determined to send it over seas. "In the grave +it will be dead," they argued. "Let it still live +on. Let it help some other fighter to greatness +and victory." + +As if to confirm their decision, the next day +a small sealing vessel anchored in the Inlet. +All the men aboard spoke Russian, save two +thin, dark, agile sailors, who kept aloof from +the crew and conversed in another language. +These two came ashore with part of the crew +and talked in French with a wandering Hudson's +Bay trapper, who often lodged with the +Squamish people. Thus the women, who yet +mourned over their dead warrior, knew these +two strangers to be from the land where the +great "Frenchman" was fighting against the +world. + +Here I interrupted the chief. "How came +the Frenchmen in a Russian sealer?" I asked. + +"Captives," he replied. "Almost slaves, and +hated by their captors, as the majority always +hate the few. So the women drew those two +Frenchmen apart from the rest and told them +the story of the bone of the sea-serpent, urging +them to carry it back to their own country +and give it to the great 'Frenchman' who was +as courageous and as brave as their dead +leader. + +"The Frenchmen hesitated; the talisman +might affect them, they said; might jangle +their own brains, so that on their return to +Russia they would not have the sagacity to +plan an escape to their own country; might +disjoint their bodies, so that their feet and +hands would be useless, and they would become +as weak as children. But the women assured +them that the charm only worked its magical +powers over a man's enemies, that the ancient +medicine men had 'bewitched' it with this +quality. So the Frenchmen took it and promised +that if it were in the power of man they +would convey it to 'the Emperor.' + +"As the crew boarded the sealer, the women +watching from the shore observed strange contortions +seize many of the men; some fell on +the deck; some crouched, shaking as with +palsy; some writhed for a moment, then fell +limp and seemingly boneless; only the two +Frenchmen stood erect and strong and vital +--the Squamish talisman had already overcome +their foes. As the little sealer set sail +up the gulf she was commanded by a crew of +two Frenchmen--men who had entered these +waters as captives, who were leaving them as +conquerors. The palsied Russians were worse +than useless, and what became of them the +chief could not state; presumably they were +flung overboard, and by some trick of a kindly +fate the Frenchmen at last reached the coast +of France. + +Tradition is so indefinite about their movements +subsequent to sailing out of the Inlet, +that even the ever-romantic and vividly +colored imaginations of the Squamish people +have never supplied the details of this beautifully +childish, yet strangely historical fairy +tale. But the voices of the trumpets of war, +the beat of drums throughout Europe heralded +back to the wilds of the Pacific Coast forests +the intelligence that the great Squamish +'charm' eventually reached the person of +Napoleon; that from this time onward his +career was one vast victory, that he won battle +after battle, conquered nation after nation, and +but for the direst calamity that could befall a +warrior would eventually have been master of +the world. + +"What was this calamity, Chief?" I asked, +amazed at his knowledge of the great historical +soldier and strategist. + +The chief's voice again lowered to a whisper +--his face was almost rigid with intentness as +he replied: + +"He lost the Squamish charm--lost it just +before one great fight with the English +people." + +I looked at him curiously; he had been telling +me the oddest mixture of history and superstition, +of intelligence and ignorance, the +most whimsically absurd, yet impressive, tale +I ever heard from Indian lips. + +"What was the name of the great fight-- +did you ever hear it?" I asked, wondering how +much he knew of events which took place at +the other side of the world a century agone. + +"Yes," he said, carefully, thoughtfully; "I +hear the name sometime in London when I +there. Railroad station there--same name." + +"Was it Waterloo?" I asked. + +He nodded quickly, without a shadow of +hesitation. "That the one," he replied; "that's +it, Waterloo." + + + + + +The Lure in Stanley Park + +There is a well-known trail in +Stanley Park that leads to what +I always love to call the "Cathedral +Trees"--that group of some +half-dozen forest giants that arch +overhead with such superb loftiness. But in +all the world there is no cathedral whose +marble or onyx columns can vie with those +straight, clean, brown cedar boles that teem +with the sap and blood of life. There is no +fresco that can rival the delicacy of lace-work +they have festooned between you and the far +skies. No tiles, no mosaic or inlaid marbles, +are as fascinating as the bare, russet, fragrant +floor outspreading about their feet. They are +the acme of Nature's architecture, and in +building them she has outrivalled all her erstwhile +conceptions. She will never originate a +more faultless design, never erect a more perfect +edifice. But the divinely moulded cedars +and the man-made cathedral have one exquisite +characteristic in common. It is the +atmosphere of holiness. Most of us have +better impulses after viewing a stately cathedral, +and none of us can stand amid that +majestic group of cedars without experiencing +some elevating thoughts, some refinement of +our coarser nature. Perhaps those who read +this little legend will never again stand amid +those cathedral trees without thinking of the +glorious souls they contain, for according to +the Coast Indians they do harbor human souls, +and the world is better because they once had +the speech and the hearts of mighty men. + +My tillicum did not use the word "lure" in +telling me this legend. There is no equivalent +for the word in the Chinook tongue, but the +gestures of his voiceful hands so expressed +the quality of something between magnetism +and charm that I have selected this word +"lure" as best fitting what he wished to convey. +Some few yards beyond the cathedral +trees, an overgrown disused trail turns into the +dense wilderness to the right. Only Indian +eyes could discern that trail, and the Indians +do not willingly go to that part of the park to +the right of the cedar group. Nothing in this, +nor yet the next world would tempt a Coast +Indian into the compact centres of the wild +portions of the park, for therein, concealed +cunningly, is the "lure" they all believe in. +There is not a tribe in the entire district that +does not know of this strange legend. You +will hear the tale from those that gather at +Eagle Harbor for the fishing, from the Fraser +River tribes, from the Squamish at the Narrows, +from the Mission, from up the Inlet, +even from the tribes at North Bend, but no +one will volunteer to be your guide, for having +once come within the "aura" of the lure it is +a human impossibility to leave it. Your willpower +is dwarfed, your intelligence blighted, +your feet will refuse to lead you out by a +straight trail, you will circle, circle for evermore +about this magnet, for if death kindly +comes to your aid your immortal spirit +will go on in that endless circling that will +bar it from entering the Happy Hunting +Grounds. + +And, like the cathedral trees, the lure once +lived, a human soul, but in this instance it +was a soul depraved, not sanctified. The Indian +belief is very beautiful concerning the +results of good and evil in the human body. +The Sagalie Tyee (God) has His own way of +immortalizing each. People who are wilfully +evil, who have no kindness in their hearts, +who are bloodthirsty, cruel, vengeful, unsympathetic, +the Sagalie Tyee turns to solid stone +that will harbor no growth, even that of moss +or lichen, for these stones contain no moisture, +just as their wicked hearts lacked the milk of +human kindness. The one famed exception, +wherein a good man was transformed into +stone, was in the instance of Siwash Rock, +but as the Indian tells you of it he smiles with +gratification as he calls your attention to the +tiny tree cresting that imperial monument. He +says the tree was always there to show the +nations that the good in this man's heart kept +on growing even when his body had ceased +to be. On the other hand the Sagalie Tyee +transforms the kindly people, the humane, +sympathetic, charitable-loving people into +trees, so that after death they may go on forever +benefiting all mankind; they may yield +fruit, give shade and shelter, afford unending +service to the living, by their usefulness as +building material and as firewood. Their saps +and gums, their fibres, their leaves, their blossoms, +enrich, nourish and sustain the human +form; no evil is produced by trees--all, all is +goodness, is hearty, is helpfulness and growth. +They give refuge to the birds, they give music +to the winds, and from them are carved the +bows and arrows, the canoes and paddles, +bowls, spoons and baskets. Their service to +mankind is priceless; the Indian that tells you +this tale will enumerate all these attributes +and virtues of these trees. No wonder the +Sagalie Tyee chose them to be the abode of +souls good and great. + +But the lure in Stanley Park is that most +dreaded of all things, an evil soul. It is embodied +in a bare, white stone, which is shunned +by moss and vine and lichen, but over which +are splashed innumerable jet-black spots that +have eaten into the surface like an acid. + +This condemned soul once animated the +body of a witch-woman, who went up and +down the coast, over seas and far inland, casting +her evil eye on innocent people, and bringing +them untold evils and diseases. About +her person she carried the renowned "Bad +Medicine" that every Indian believes in-- +medicine that weakened the arm of the warrior +in battle, that caused deformities, that +poisoned minds and characters, that engendered +madness, that bred plagues and epidemics; +in short, that was the seed of every +evil that could befall mankind. This witch-woman +herself was immune from death; generations +were born and grew to old age, and +died, and other generations arose in their +stead, but the witch-woman went about, her +heart set against her kind; her acts were evil, +her purposes wicked, she broke hearts and +bodies and souls; she gloried in tears, and +revelled in unhappiness, and sent them +broadcast wherever she wandered. And in his +high heaven the Sagalie Tyee wept with +sorrow for his afflicted human children. He +dared not let her die, for her spirit would still +go on with its evil doing. In mighty anger +he gave command to his Four Men (always +representing the Deity) that they should turn +this witch-woman into a stone and enchain her +spirit in its centre, that the curse of her might +be lifted from the unhappy race. + +So the Four Men entered their giant canoe, +and headed, as was their custom, up the Narrows. +As they neared what is now known as +Prospect Point they heard from the heights +above them a laugh, and looking up they beheld +the witch-woman jeering defiantly at +them. They landed and, scaling the rocks, +pursued her as she danced away, eluding them +like a will-o'-the-wisp as she called out to them +sneeringly: + +"Care for yourselves, oh! men of the Sagalie +Tyee, or I shall blight you with my evil +eye. Care for yourselves and do not follow +me." On and on she danced through the +thickest of the wilderness, on and on they followed +until they reached the very heart of +the seagirt neck of land we know as Stanley +Park. Then the tallest, the mightiest of the +Four Men, lifted his hand and cried out: "Oh! +woman of the stony heart, be stone for evermore, +and bear forever a black stain for each +one of your evil deeds." And as he spoke the +witch-woman was transformed into this stone +that tradition says is in the centre of the park. + +Such is the legend of the Lure, whether or +not this stone is really in existence--who +knows? One thing is positive, however, no +Indian will ever help to discover it. + +Three different Indians have told me that +fifteen or eighteen years ago two tourists--a +man and a woman--were lost in Stanley Park. +When found a week later, the man was dead, +the woman mad, and each of my informants +firmly believed they had, in their wanderings, +encountered "the stone" and were compelled +to circle around it, because of its powerful lure. + +But this wild tale fortunately has a most +beautiful conclusion. The Four Men, fearing +that the evil heart imprisoned in the stone +would still work destruction, said: "At the +end of the trail we must place so good and +great a thing that it will be mightier, stronger, +more powerful than this evil." So they chose +from the nations the kindliest, most benevolent +men, men whose hearts were filled with +the love of their fellow-beings, and transformed +these merciful souls into the stately +group of "Cathedral Trees." + +How well the purpose of the Sagalie Tyee +has wrought its effect through time! The +good has predominated as He planned it to, +for is not the stone hidden in some unknown +part of the park where eyes do not see it and +feet do not follow--and do not the thousands +who come to us from the nethermost parts of +the world seek that wondrous beauty spot, and +stand awed by the majestic silence, the almost +holiness of that group of giant cedars? + +More than any other legend that the Indians +about Vancouver have told me does this tale +reveal the love of the Coast native for kindness, +and his hatred of cruelty. If these tribes really +have ever been a warlike race I cannot think +they pride themselves much on the occupation. +If you talk with any of them and they +mention some man they particularly like or +admire, their first qualification of him is: "He's +a kind man." They never say he is brave, or +rich, or successful, or even strong, that characteristic +so loved by the red man. To these +Coast tribes if a man is "kind" he is everything. +And almost without exception their +legends deal with rewards for tenderness and +self-abnegation, and personal and mental +cleanliness. + +Call them fairy tales if you wish to, they all +have a reasonableness that must have originated +in some mighty mind, and better than +that, they all tell of the Indian's faith in the +survival of the best impulses of the human +heart, and the ultimate extinction of the worst. + +In talking with my many good tillicums, I +find this witch-woman legend is the most universally +known and thoroughly believed in of +all traditions they have honored me by revealing to me. + + + + + +Deer Lake + +Few white men ventured inland, +a century ago, in the days of +the first Chief Capilano, when +the spoils of the mighty Fraser +River poured into copper-colored +hands, but did not find their way to the +remotest corners of the earth, as in our times, +when the gold from its sources, the salmon +from its mouth, the timber from its shores are +world-known riches. + +The fisherman's craft, the hunter's cunning +were plied where now cities and industries, +trade and commerce, buying and selling hold +sway. In those days the moccasined foot +awoke no echo in the forest trails. Primitive +weapons, arms, implements, and utensils were +the only means of the Indians' food-getting. +His livelihood depended upon his own personal +prowess, his skill in woodcraft and water lore. +And, as this is a story of an elk-bone spear, +the reader must first be in sympathy with the +fact that this rude instrument, deftly fashioned, +was of priceless value to the first +Capilano, to whom it had come through three +generations of ancestors, all of whom had +been experienced hunters and dexterous +fishermen. + +Capilano himself was without a rival as a +spearsman. He knew the moods of the Fraser +River, the habits of its thronging tenants, as +no other man has ever known them before or +since. He knew every isle and inlet along the +coast, every boulder, the sand-bars, the still +pools, the temper of the tides. He knew the +spawning grounds, the secret streams that fed +the larger rivers, the outlets of rock-bound +lakes, the turns and tricks of swirling rapids. +He knew the haunts of bird and beast and +fish and fowl, and was master of the arts and +artifice that man must use when matching his +brain against the eluding wiles of the untamed +creatures of the wilderness. + +Once only did his cunning fail him, once +only did Nature baffle him with her mysterious +fabric of waterways and land lures. It +was when he was led to the mouth of the unknown +river, which has evaded discovery +through all the centuries, but which--so say +the Indians--still sings on its way through +some buried channel that leads from the lake +to the sea. + +He had been sealing along the shores of +what is now known as Point Grey. His canoe +had gradually crept inland, skirting up the +coast to the mouth of False Creek. Here he +encountered a very king of seals, a colossal +creature that gladdened the hunter's eyes as +game worthy of his skill. For this particular +prize he would cast the elk-bone spear. It had +never failed his sire, his grandsire, his great-grandsire. +He knew it would not fail him +now. A long, pliable, cedar-fibre rope lay in +his canoe. Many expert fingers had woven +and plaited that rope, had beaten and oiled it +until it was soft and flexible as a serpent. This +he attached to the spearhead, and with deft, +unerring aim cast it at the king seal. The +weapon struck home. The gigantic creature +shuddered and, with a cry like a hurt child, it +plunged down into the sea. With the rapidity +and strength of a giant fish it scudded inland +with the rising tide, while Capilano paid out +the rope its entire length, and, as it stretched +taut, felt the canoe leap forward, propelled by +the mighty strength of the creature which +lashed the waters into whirlpools, as though +it was possessed with the power and properties +of a whale. + +Up the stretch of False Creek the man and +monster drove their course, where a century +hence great city bridges were to over-arch the +waters. They strove and struggled each for +the mastery, neither of them weakened, neither +of them faltered--the one dragging, the other +driving. In the end it was to be a matching +of brute and human wits, not forces. As they +neared the point where now Main Street +bridge flings its shadow across the waters, the +brute leaped high into the air, then plunged +headlong into the depths. The impact ripped +the rope from Capilano's hands. It rattled +across the gunwale. He stood staring at the +spot where it had disappeared--the brute had +been victorious. At low tide the Indian made +search. No trace of his game, of his precious +elk-bone spear, of his cedar-fibre rope, could +be found. With the loss of the latter he firmly +believed his luck as a hunter would be gone. +So he patrolled the mouth of False Creek for +many moons. His graceful, high-bowed +canoe rarely touched other waters, but the seal +king had disappeared. Often he thought long +strands of drifting sea grasses were his lost +cedar-fibre rope. With other spears, with +other cedar-fibres, with paddle blade and cunning +traps he dislodged the weeds from their +moorings, but they slipped their slimy lengths +through his eager hands: his best spear with +its attendant coil was gone. + +The following year he was sealing again off +the coast of Point Grey, and one night after +sunset he observed the red reflection from the +west, which seemed to transfer itself to the +eastern skies. Far into the night dashes of +flaming scarlet pulsed far beyond the head of +False Creek. The color rose and fell like a +beckoning hand, and, Indian-like, he immediately +attached some portentous meaning to +the unusual sight. That it was some omen +he never doubted, so he paddled inland, +beached his canoe, and took the trail towards +the little group of lakes that crowd themselves +into the area that lies between the present +cities of Vancouver and New Westminster. +But long before he reached the shores of Deer +Lake he discovered that the beckoning hand +was in reality flame. The little body of water +was surrounded by forest fires. One avenue +alone stood open. It was a group of giant +trees that as yet the flames had not reached. +As he neared the point he saw a great moving +mass of living things leaving the lake and +hurrying northward through this one egress. +He stood, listening, intently watching with +alert eyes; the swirr of myriads of little travelling +feet caught his quick ear--the moving +mass was an immense colony of beaver. +Thousands upon thousands of them. Scores +of baby beavers staggered along, following +their mothers; scores of older beavers that had +felled trees and built dams through many seasons; +a countless army of trekking fur beavers, +all under the generalship of a wise old leader, +who, as king of the colony, advanced some +few yards ahead of his battalions. Out of the +waters through the forest towards the country +to the north they journeyed. Wandering +hunters said they saw them cross Burrard +Inlet at the Second Narrows, heading inland +as they reached the farther shore. But where +that mighty army of royal little Canadians +set up their new colony, no man knows. Not +even the astuteness of the first Capilano ever +discovered their destination. Only one thing +was certain, Deer Lake knew them no more. + +After their passing, the Indian retraced +their trail to the water's edge. In the red +glare of the encircling fires he saw what he +at first thought was some dead and dethroned +king beaver on the shore. A huge carcass lay +half in, half out, of the lake. Approaching it +he saw the wasted body of a giant seal. There +could never be two seals of that marvellous +size. His intuition now grasped the meaning of +the omen of the beckoning flame that had +called him from the far coasts of Point Grey. +He stooped above his dead conqueror and +found, embedded in its decaying flesh, the elk-bone +spear of his forefathers, and trailing +away at the water's rim was a long flexible +cedar-fibre rope. + +As he extracted this treasured heirloom he +felt the "power," that men of magic possess, +creep up his sinewy arms. It entered his +heart, his blood, his brain. For a long time +he sat and chanted songs that only great +medicine men may sing, and, as the hours +drifted by, the heat of the forest fires subsided, +the flames diminished into smouldering blackness. +At daybreak the forest fire was dead, +but its beckoning fingers had served their purpose. +The magic elk-bone spear had come +back to its own. + +Until the day of his death the first Capilano +searched for the unknown river up which the +seal travelled from False Creek to Deer Lake, +but its channel is a secret that even Indian +eyes have not seen. + +But although those of the Squamish tribe +tell and believe that the river still sings +through its hidden trail that leads from Deer +Lake to the sea, its course is as unknown, its +channel is as hopelessly lost as the brave little +army of beavers that a century ago marshalled +their forces and travelled up into the +great lone north. + + + + + +A Royal Mohawk Chief + +How many Canadians are aware +that in Prince Arthur, Duke of +Connaught, and only surviving +son of Queen Victoria, who has +been appointed to represent King +George V in Canada, they undoubtedly +have what many wish for--one bearing an +ancient Canadian title as Governor-General of +all the Dominion? It would be difficult to +find a man more Canadian than any one of +the fifty chiefs who compose the parliament +of the ancient Iroquois nation, that royal race +of Redskins that has fought for the British +crown against all of the enemies thereof, adhering +to the British flag through the wars +against both the French and the colonists. + +Arthur Duke of Connaught is the only living +white man who to-day has an undisputed +right to the title of "Chief of the Six Nations +Indians" (known collectively as the Iroquois). +He possesses the privilege of sitting in their +councils, of casting his vote on all matters +relative to the governing of the tribes, the +disposal of reservation lands, the appropriation +of both the principal and interest of the +more than half a million dollars these tribes +hold in Government bonds at Ottawa, accumulated +from the sales of their lands. In short, +were every drop of blood in his royal veins +red, instead of blue, he could not be more fully +qualified as an Indian chief than he now is, +not even were his title one of the fifty hereditary +ones whose illustrious names composed +the Iroquois confederacy before the Paleface +ever set foot in America. + +It was on the occasion of his first visit to +Canada in 1869, when he was little more than +a boy, that Prince Arthur received, upon his +arrival at Quebec, an address of welcome +from his Royal mother's "Indian Children" +on the Grand River Reserve, in Brant county, +Ontario. In addition to this welcome they +had a request to make of him: would he +accept the title of Chief and visit their +reserve to give them the opportunity of conferring it? + +One of the great secrets of England's success +with savage races has been her consideration, +her respect, her almost reverence of +native customs, ceremonies and potentates. +She wishes her own customs and kings to be +honored, so she freely accords like honor to +her subjects, it matters not whether they be +white, black or red. + +Young Arthur was delighted--royal lads +are pretty much like all other boys; the +unique ceremony would be a break in the endless +round of state receptions, banquets and +addresses. So he accepted the Red Indians' +compliment, knowing well that it was the +loftiest honor those people could confer upon +a white man. + +It was the morning of October first when the +royal train steamed into the little city of Brantford, +where carriages awaited to take the Prince +and his suite to the "Old Mohawk Church," +in the vicinity of which the ceremony was +to take place. As for the Prince's especial escort, +Onwanonsyshon, head chief of the Mohawks, +rode on a jet-black pony beside the carriage. +The chief was garmented in full native costume +--a buckskin suit, beaded moccasins, +headband of owl's and eagle's feathers, and +ornaments hammered from coin silver that +literally covered his coat and leggings. About +his shoulders was flung a scarlet blanket, +consisting of the identical broadcloth from +which the British army tunics are made; this +he "hunched" with his shoulders from time to +time in true Indian fashion. As they drove +along, the Prince chatted boyishly with his +Mohawk escort, and once leaned forward to +pat the black pony on its shining neck and +speak admiringly of it. It was a warm +autumn day: the roads were dry and dusty, +and, after a mile or so, the boy-prince brought +from beneath the carriage seat a basket of +grapes. With his handkerchief he flicked the +dust from them, handed a bunch to the +chief and took one himself. An odd spectacle +to be traversing a country road: an English +prince and an Indian chief, riding amicably +side-by-side, enjoying a banquet of grapes +like two schoolboys. + +On reaching the church, Arthur leapt +lightly to the green sward. For a moment +he stood, rigid, gazing before him at his future +brother-chiefs. His escort had given him a +faint idea of what he was to see, but he certainly +never expected to be completely surrounded +by three hundred full-blooded Iroquois +braves and warriors, such as now +encircled him on every side. Every Indian +was in war paint and feathers, some stripped +to the waist, their copper-colored skins brilliant +with paints, dyes and "patterns"; all +carried tomahawks, scalping-knives, and bows +and arrows. Every red throat gave a tremendous +war-whoop as he alighted, which was +repeated again and again, as for that half +moment he stood silent, a slim boyish figure, +clad in light grey tweeds--a singular contrast +to the stalwarts in gorgeous costumes who +crowded about him. His young face paled to +ashy whiteness, then with true British grit +he extended his right hand and raised his +black "billy-cock" hat with his left. At the +same time he took one step forward. Then +the war cries broke forth anew, deafening, +savage, terrible cries, as one by one the entire +three hundred filed past, the Prince shaking +hands with each one, and removing his glove +to do so. This strange reception over, +Onwanonsyshon rode up, and, flinging his +scarlet blanket on the grass, dismounted, +and asked the Prince to stand on it. + +Then stepped forward an ancient chief, +father of Onwanonsyshon, and Speaker of the +Council. He was old in inherited and personal +loyalty to the British crown. He had fought +under Sir Isaac Brock at Queenston Heights +in 1812, while yet a mere boy, and upon him +was laid the honor of making his Queen's son +a chief. Taking Arthur by the hand this venerable +warrior walked slowly to and fro across +the blanket, chanting as he went the strange, +wild formula of induction. From time to time +he was interrupted by loud expressions of +approval and assent from the vast throng of +encircling braves, but apart from this no +sound was heard but the low, weird monotone +of a ritual older than the white man's footprints +in North America. + +It is necessary that a chief of each of the +three "clans" of the Mohawks shall assist in +this ceremony. The veteran chief, who sang +the formula, was of the Bear clan. His son, +Onwanonsyshon, was of the Wolf (the clanship +descends through the mother's side of +the family). Then one other chief, of the +Turtle clan, and in whose veins coursed the +blood of the historic Brant, now stepped to +the edge of the scarlet blanket. The chant +ended, these two young chiefs received the +Prince into the Mohawk tribe, conferring +upon him the name of "Kavakoudge," which +means "the sun flying from East to West +under the guidance of the Great Spirit." + +Onwanonsyshon then took from his waist a +brilliant deep-red sash, heavily embroidered +with beads, porcupine quills and dyed moose +hair, placing it over the Prince's left shoulder +and knotting it beneath his right arm. The +ceremony was ended. The Constitution that +Hiawatha had founded centuries ago, a Constitution +wherein fifty chiefs, no more, no less, +should form the parliament of the "Six +Nations," had been shattered and broken, because +this race of loyal red men desired to do +honor to a slender young boy-prince, who now +bears the fifty-first title of the Iroquois. + +Many white men have received from these +same people honorary titles, but none has +been bestowed through the ancient ritual, +with the imperative members of the three +clans assisting, save that borne by Arthur of +Connaught. + +After the ceremony the Prince entered the +church to autograph his name in the ancient +Bible, which, with a silver Holy Communion +service, a bell, two tablets inscribed with the +Ten Commandments, and a bronze British +coat-of-arms, had been presented to the +Mohawks by Queen Anne. He inscribed +"Arthur" just below the "Albert Edward," +which, as Prince of Wales, the late king wrote +when he visited Canada in 1860. + +When he returned to England, Chief Kavakoudge +sent his portrait, together with one of +Queen Victoria and the Prince Consort, to be +placed in the Council House of the "Six Nations," +where they decorate the walls today. + +As I write, I glance up to see, in a corner of +my room, a draping scarlet blanket, made +of British army broadcloth, for the chief who +rode the jet-black pony so long ago was the +writer's father. He was not here to wear it +when Arthur of Connaught again set foot on +Canadian shores. + +Many of these facts I have culled from a +paper that lies on my desk; it is yellowing +with age, and bears the date, "Toronto, +October 2, 1869," and on the margin is written +in a clear, half-boyish hand, "Onwanonsyshon, +with kind regards from your brother-chief, +Arthur." + + + +END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG TEXT OF +LEGENDS OF VANCOUVER BY E. PAULINE JOHNSON + + |