Part 18 (2/2)

”Poor child! I am the first white person she has seen since her o to her to- for her To me my work is all in all”

CHAPTER IV

ARCHERY AND GAMBLING

To ga they are no less passionately addicted in the interior than on the coast--BANCROFT: _Native Races_

The next aether under the eyes of Multnomah, and Snoqualinning to produce the result that the politic chief had intended they should Better feeling was springing up The spirit of discontent that had been rife was disappearing Every day good-fellowshi+p grew more and more between the Willamettes and their allies Every day Snoqual the tribes, and already he was second in influence to none but Multnoreat war-chief had triumphed over every obstacle; and he waited now only for the last day of the council, when his daughter should be given to Snoqualnize hi this, the sight of Snoqualmie's successful archery was almost intolerable to Cecil, and he turned away froa Willamette who is sick,” he said to hio and visit Wallulah”

The thought sent the blood coursing warh his veins, but he chided hio to her only as a ain

He went to the lodge of the young Willamette and asked for him

”He is not here,” the father of the youth told hi, _hieu_ sick”

And the old ed intonation and a co man were very sick indeed To the sweat-house went Cecil forthwith He found it to be a little arched hut, round and covering the for entrance When a sick person wished to take one of those ”sweat baths” so co the Indians, stones were heated red hot and put within the hut, and water was poured on the was closed behind him, and he was left to steam in the vapors

When Cecil caes of the skins, and he could hear the young Willa, an endlessly repeated invocation to his _tote or even breathe in that stifling atmosphere was a mystery to Cecil

By and by the Willa over the entrance and crawled out, hot, stea at every pore He rushed with unsteady footsteps down to the river, only a few yards away, and plunged into the cold water After repeatedly i himself, he waded back to the shore and lay down to dry in the sun The shock to his nervous syste from a hot steam-bath into ice-cold water fresh from the snow peaks of the north had roused all his latent vitality He had recovered enough to be sullen and resentful to Cecil when he ca to talk with or help him, the missionary left him

It is characteristic of the Indian, perhaps of most half-animal races, that theirLike the aniood-humored, even sportive, when all is well; like the ani in time of sickness

Cecil went back to the careat day of gaerness hich all the Indians flung themselves into it

Multnomah alone took no part, and Tohomish, visible only at the council, was not there But with those two exceptions, chiefs, warriors, all flung thea chiefs played at ”hand,” and each tribe backed its chief Furs, skins, weapons, all a the tribes of the winners,--each player representing a tribe, and his winnings going, not to himself, but to his people This rule applied, of course, only to the great public gaames of ”hand” each successful player kept his own spoils

A, the two polished bits of bone (the winning one marked, the other not) were passed secretly from hand to hand The bets were made as to who held the marked stick and in which hand, then a show of hands was ame was lost and won

Froaured beaver teeth or disks of ivory, which were tossed up, everything depending on the coures presented in their fall It was played recklessly The Indians were carried away by excite they had Wealthy chiefs staked their all on the turn of the ivory disks, and soared, soar, chief of the Molallies He was like a e bestial face was all ablaze with exciteh intellect to understand the ga himself into it body and soul

He bet his horses and lost thees, with their rude furnishi+ngs of mat and fur, and lost once more Maddened, furious, like a lion in the toils, the desperate savage staked his wives and children on the throw of the _ahikia_, and they were swept frolared upon his opponents, with his to dieance, ready to strike, yet not knowing upon whom the blow should fall There was death in his look, and the chiefs shrunk fro on; and the war-chief checked and awed hiht subdue a rebellious tiger Then the Molallie turned and went away, raging, desperate, a chief still, but a chief without lodge or wife or slave