Part 6 (2/2)

”Your sayings are dark,” replied the chief impatiently ”Speak plainly”

Toholoomy look habitual to him came back

”I cannot Dreae is the secret of the Great Spirit; and I cannot tell it lest he beco words”

”The secret of the Great Spirit! What black thing is it you are hiding and covering up ords? Bring it forth into the light, that I may see it”

”No, it is ift of eloquence would go from me, the fire would die from my heart and the words from my lips, and my life would wither up withinas was his character he was still an Indian, and the words of the seer had touched the latent superstition in his nature They referred to that strongest and es,--the spirit possession or devil worshi+p of the _toh to aspire to a place a the braves, he was sent into the hills alone There he fasted, prayed, and danced, chanted the medicine-chant, and cut hiround Whatever he saw then, in waking delirium or feverish sleep, was the charm that was to control his future Be it bird or beast, dream or ave hie of the future, i to him its own characteristics But _what_ it was, its nao with hirave Woe unto him if he told the na fro him a shattered wreck, an outcast from camp and war-party

”Multnomah says well that it is a black secret, but it is my _totem_ and may not be told For many winters Tohomish has carried it in his breast, till its poisoned sap has filled his heart with bitterness, till for hihter has grown a sob of pain, and sorrow and death have become what the feast, the battle, and the chase are to othertrouble, that makes Tohomish's voice like the voice of a pine; so thatwoe,the heart as no other can And if he tells the secret, eloquence and life go with it Shall Tohomish tell it? Will Multnoe and the Willaazed at him earnestly In that troubled, deterave way to the invincible obstinacy of his resolve

”No Multno and will not fail him, come what may; and that is all he cares to know If you told ry, and drain your spirit from you and cast you aside as the serpent casts its skin And you reat council; for there the arm of Multnomah and the voice of Tohomish must bend the bad chiefs before them”

His accents had the same undertone of arbitrary will, of inflexible determination, that had been in theh the shadows fellacross his path, to turn back did not occur to hio his settled purpose

”Tohomish will be at the council and speak for his chief and his tribe?” asked Multnomah, in a tone that was half inquiry, half coave hi an influence over the Indians ard and repulsive face had settled back into the look of mournful apathy habitual to hie the chief's decision by a single word, but seened himself with true Indian fataliso to the council,” he said in those soft and lingering accents, indescribably sweet and sad, hich his degraded face contrasted so strongly ”Yes, he will go to the council, and his voice shall bend and turn the hearts ofwill be the words that he shall say, for with him it will be sunset and his voice will be heard no o when the council is ended, that we shall see you no more?” asked Multnomah

”On the death-trail to the spirit-land,--nor will I go alone,” was the startling reply; and the seer glided noiselessly away and disappeared a the trees

CHAPTER III

WALLULAH

Ne'er was seen In art or nature, aught so passing sweet As was the form that in its beauteous frame Inclosed her, and is scattered now in dust

CAREY: _Dante_

Multnohter Wallulah, a half Asiatic, and the most beautiful woman in all the land of the Wauna

Reader, would you know the tale of the fair oriental of as born the sweet beauty of Wallulah?

Eighteen years before the time of our story, an East Indian shi+p recked on the Colu into the hands of the Indians Aly lovely woman, as hospitably entertained by the chief of the tribe He and his people were deeply ier, whose dainty beauty won for her the name of ”Sea-Flower,”

because the sea, that is ever drifting weeds, had for once wafted a flower to the shore

As she sat on the e, the stern chief softened his voice, trying to talk with her; the uncouth wo soft hair, and some of the bolder and ly, while the throng of dusky faces pressed close round the pale, sweet creature whose eyes looked at them with a deep, dumb woe they could not understand