before
him, hand clasped in hand.

"'Oh! our father,' they said, 'may we speak?'

"'Speak, my daughters, my girls with the eyes of April, the hearts of
June'" (early spring and early summer would be the more accurate Indian
phrasing).

"'Some day, Oh! our father, we may mother a man child, who may grow to
be just such a powerful Tyee as you are, and for this honor that may
some day be ours we have come to crave a favor of you--you, Oh! our
father.'

"'It is your privilege at this celebration to receive any favor your
hearts may wish,' he replied graciously, placing his fingers beneath
their girlish chins. 'The favor is yours before you ask it, my
daughters.'

"'Will you, for our sakes, invite the great northern hostile tribe--the
tribe you war upon--to this, our feast?' they asked fearlessly.

"'To a peaceful feast, a feast in the honor of women?' he exclaimed
incredulously.

"'So we would desire it,' they answered.

"'And so shall it be,' he declared. 'I can deny you nothing this day,
and some time you may bear sons to bless this peace you have asked, and
to bless their mother's sire for granting it.' Then he turned to all
the young men of the tribe and commanded, 'Build fires at sunset on all
the coast headlands--fires of welcome. Man your canoes and face the
north, greet the enemy, and tell them that I, the Tyee of the
Capilanos, ask--no, command that they join me for a great feast in
honor of my two daughters.' And when the northern tribes got this
invitation they flocked down the coast to this feast of a Great Peace.
They brought their women and their children: they brought game and
fish, gold and white stone beads, baskets and carven ladles, and
wonderful woven blankets to lay at the feet of their now acknowledged
ruler, the great Tyee. And he, in turn, gave such a potlatch that
nothing but tradition can vie with it. There were long, glad days of
joyousness, long pleasurable nights of dancing and camp fires, and vast
quantities of food. The war canoes were emptied of their deadly
weapons and filled with the daily catch of salmon. The hostile war
songs ceased, and in their place were heard the soft shuffle of dancing
feet, the singing voices of women, the play-games of the children of
two powerful tribes which had been until now ancient enemies, for a
great and lasting brotherhood was sealed between them--their war songs
were ended forever.

"Then the Sagalie Tyee smiled on His Indian children