CHAPTER V.
AS WAS WRIT IN THE BOOK OF FATE.
A land of old upheaven from the abyss By fire, to sink into the abyss again, Where fragments of forgotten peoples dwelt.
TENNYSON.
A ND now our tale draws to a close. There re-
- "* mains but to tell how the last council was held
on Wappatto Island; how Mishlah the Cougar, chief of the Mollalies, died; and how the prophecy of the Bridge was fulfilled.
The morning after the obsequies of Multnomah, the chiefs met in the grove where the great council of the tribes had been held only a few weeks before. The leaves, which had been green and glossy then, were turning yellow and sickly now in the close hot weather. All Nature seemed full of decay.
The chiefs were grouped before the vacant seat of Multnomah; and the Willamette tribe, gathered from canyon and prairie and fishery, looked on, sole spec tators of the proceedings, for none of the allies were present. The ravages of the pestilence had been terrible. Many warriors were missing from the spec tators; many chiefs were absent from the council. And there were some present from whom the others shrunk away, whose hot breath and livid f
