es are
bidden to this festival. More than that, sometimes when a great Tyee
celebrates for his daughter, the tribes from far up the coast, from the
distant north, from inland, from the island, from the Cariboo country,
are gathered as guests to the feast. During these days of rejoicing,
the girl is placed in a high seat, an exalted position, for is she not
marriageable? And does not marriage mean motherhood? And does not
motherhood mean a vaster nation of brave sons and of gentle daughters,
who, in their turn, will give us sons and daughters of their own?

"But it was many thousands of years ago that a great Tyee had two
daughters that grew to womanhood at the same springtime, when the first
great run of salmon thronged the rivers, and the ollallie bushes were
heavy with blossoms. These two daughters were young, lovable, and oh!
very beautiful. Their father, the great Tyee, prepared to make a feast
such as the Coast had never seen. There were to be days and days of
rejoicing, the people were to come for many leagues, were to bring
gifts to the girls and to receive gifts of great value from the Chief,
and hospitality was to reign as long as pleasuring feet could dance,
and enjoying lips could laugh, and mouths partake of the excellence of
the Chief's fish, game and ollallies.

[Illustration: THE LIONS (THE TWO SISTERS)
Bishop & Christie, Photo.]

"The only shadow on the joy of it all was war, for the tribe of the
great Tyee was at war with the Upper Coast Indians, those who lived
north, near what is named by the Paleface as the port of Prince Rupert.
Giant war canoes slipped along the entire coast, war parties paddled up
and down, war songs broke the silences of the nights, hatred,
vengeance, strife, horror festered everywhere like sores on the surface
of the earth. But the great Tyee, after warring for weeks, turned and
laughed at the battle and the bloodshed, for he had been victor in
every encounter, and he could well afford to leave the strife for a
brief week and feast in his daughters' honor, nor permit any mere enemy
to come between him and the traditions of his race and household. So
he turned insultingly deaf ears to their war cries; he ignored with
arrogant indifference their paddle dips that encroached within his own
coast waters, and he prepared, as a great Tyee should, to royally
entertain his tribesmen in honor of his daughters.

"But seven suns before the great feast, these two maidens came