Ii6 THE BRIDGE OF THE GODS.
Yakimas and Klickitats, clad in skins or wrapped in blankets woven of the wool of the mountain sheep.
Cecil stood before them and spoke, using the Wil lamette tongue, the language of common intercourse Between the tribes, all of whom had different dialects. The audience listened in silence while he told them of the goodness and compassion of the Great Spirit; how it grieved him to see his children at war among themselves, and how he, Cecil, had been sent to warn them to forsake their sins and live better lives. Long familiarity with the Indians had imparted to him somewhat of their manner of thinking and speaking; his language had become picturesque with Indian im agery, and his style of oratory had acquired a tinge of Indian gravity. But the intense and vivid spirit uality that had ever been the charm of his eloquence was in it still. There was something in his words that for the moment, and unconsciously to them, lifted his hearers to a higher plane. When he closed there was upon them that vague remorse, that dim desire to be better, that indefinable wistfulness, which his earnest, tender words never failed to arouse in his hearers.
When he lifted his hands at the close of his " talk," and prayed that the Great Spirit might pity them, that he might take away from them the black and wicked heart of war and hate and give them the new heart of peace and love, the silence was almost breathless, broken only by the unceasing roar of the falls and the solemn pleading of the missionary s voice.
He left them and returned through the deepening shadows to his lodge. There he flung himself on the couch of furs the old Indian woman had spread for
