AN INDIAN TRIAL. 135
with him on the war- trail? So he stopped his ears and would not listen, but let those rumors go past him like thistle-down upon the wind.
"Warriors, Multnomah has shown his heart. What say you? Shall the peace-pipe be lighted and the talk begin?"
He resumed his seat. All eyes turned to where the peace-pipe and the tomahawk lay side by side before the council. Multnomah seemed waiting for them to choose between the two.
Then Snoqualmie, the bravest and most loyal of the tributaries, spoke.
"Let the peace-pipe be lighted; we come not for strife, but to be knit together."
The angry malcontents in the council only frowned and drew their blankets closer around them. Toho- mish the seer, as the oldest chief and most renowned medicine-man present, came forward and lighted the pipe, a long, thin piece of carving in black stone, the workmanship of the Nootkas or Hydahs, who made the more elaborate pipes used by the Indians of the Columbia River.
Muttering some mystical incantation, he waved it to the east and the west, to the north and the south; and when the charm was complete, gave it to Multnomah, who smoked it and passed it to Sno qualmie. From chief to chief it circled around the whole council, but among them were those who sat with eyes fixed moodily on the ground and would not so much as touch or look at it. As the pipe passed round tnere was a subdued murmur and move ment in the multitude, a low threatening clamor, as yet held in check by awe of Multnomah and dread
