ON THE WAY TO THE COUNCIL. 115
men and half-clad women, squalid, fierce as wild beasts, and gazed wonderingly.
"It is he, the white man," they whispered among themselves. "See the long beard." " See the white hands." " Stand back, the Great Spirit sent him; he is strong tomanowos; beware his anger."
Now the horses were unpacked and the lodges pitched, under the eyes of the larger part of the encampment, who watched everything with insatiable curiosity, and stole all that they could lay their hands on. Especially did they hang on every motion of Cecil; and he sank very much in their estimation When they found that he helped his servant, the old Indian woman, put up his lodge.
"Ugh, he does squaw s work," was the ungracious comment. After awhile, when the lodge was up and Cecil lay weary and exhausted upon his mat within it, a messenger entered and told him that the Indians were all collected near the river bank and wished him to come and give them the " talk " he had brought from the Great Spirit.
Worn as he was, Cecil arose and went. It was in the interval between sunset and dark. The sun still shone on the cliffs above the great canyon, but in the spaces below the shadows were deepening. On the flat rocks near the bank of the river, and close by the falls of Tumwater, the Indians were gathered to the number of several hundred, awaiting him, some squatting, Indian fashion, on the ground, others standing upright, looking taller than human in the dusky light. Mingled with the debased tribes that made up the larger part of the gathering, Cecil saw here and there warriors of a bolder and superior race,
