mettes trembled for the fame of their orators. Back
in the shadow of the cottonwoods, an old Willamette
warrior put an arrow on the string and bent his bow
unseen on Tohomish.
"He cannot beat them, and it shall never be said that Tohomish failed/ he muttered. At that moment, even as death hung over him, the orator s voice was heard beginning his " talk; " and the warrior s hand fell, the bent bow was relaxed, the arrow dropped from the string. For with the first accents of that soft and lingering voice the tribes were thrilled as with the beginning of music.
The orator s head was still bent down, his manner abstracted; he spoke of the legends and the glories of the Willamette tribe, but spoke of them as if that tribe belonged to the past, as if it had perished from the earth, and he was telling the tale of a great dead race. His tones were melodious but indescribably mournful. When at length he lifted his face, his eyes shone with a misty light, and his brutal features were illuminated with a weird enthusiasm. A shudder went through the vast and motley assembly. No boastful rant was this, but a majestic story of the past, the story of a nation gone forever. It was the death- song of the Willamettes, solemnly rendered by the last and greatest orator of the race.
At length he spoke of Multnomah and of the power of the confederacy in his time, but spoke of it as of old time, seen dimly through the lapse of years. Then, when as it seemed he was about to go on and tell how this power came to fall, he hesitated; the words faltered on his lips; he suddenly broke off, took his seat, and drew his robe again over his face.
