Page:McLoughlin and Old Oregon.djvu/153

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the

tew-at dead. That is Indian fashion. The medicine man is responsible.

Sticcas, a sub-chief, fell sick and came to the mission for care and treatment. Late at night Mrs. Whitman sat by the sick Indian with her seven weeks' baby on her lap, writing to her mother. Utterly worn out, Dr. Whitman had thrown himself down to sleep. Sticcas was the most enlightened man of his tribe, but because he was not well in a moment he became restless and uneasy. He rolled in his sleep and muttered, "The tew-ats, the tew-ats, send for the tew-ats"

In a few days he was better; soon he was well. When the warm Chinook blew in the May all the Cayuses recovered. Then great was the fame of Dr. Whitman.

That baby born at the Whitman mission was named for two grandmothers Alice Clarissa. Her advent created great excitement among the Cayuses. The whole tribe of the Walla Wallas moved their teepees nearer. Far away to the buffalo country the tidings flew, up among the Nez Perces and to the distant Flatheads. The next day after she was born Chief Tiloukaikt called at the mission.

"Ugh-ugh! "he grunted, at sight of her ladyship. "Ugh-ugh! fall to pieces! Tecast! tecast!" he cried, dropping his buckskin robe and waving his arms so wildly that Mrs. Whitman thought something must be the matter.

The old chief knelt down and poked the baby's clothes with his big red fingers to see if under the dainty flannels there might not be indeed a hidden tecast (baby-board).

Pio-pio-mox-mox came, and Five Crows and Elijah, all worshippers at the shrine of the little white child. Five Crows remained a long time, smoking in the