heir--a man-child to be
our Great Tyee in years to come. When you are old and weary of tribal
affairs, when you sit wrapped in your blanket in the hot summer
sunshine, because your blood is old and thin, what can a girl-child do
to help either you or us? Who, then, will be our Great Tyee?'

"He stood in the centre of the menacing circle, his arms folded, his
chin raised, his eyes hard as flint. His voice, cold as stone, replied:

"'Perhaps she will give you such a man-child, and, if so, the child is
yours; he will belong to you, not to me; he will become the possession
of the people. But if the child is a girl she will belong to me--she
will be mine. You cannot take her from me as you took me from my
mother's side and forced me to forget my aged father in my service to
my tribe; she will belong to me, will be the mother of my
grandchildren, and her husband will be my son.'

"'You do not care for the good of your tribe. You care only for your
own wishes and desires,' they rebelled. 'Suppose the salmon run is
small, we will have no food; suppose there is no man-child, we will
have no Great Tyee to show us how to get food from other tribes, and we
shall starve.'

"'Your hearts are black and bloodless,' thundered the Great Tyee,
turning upon them fiercely, 'and your eyes are blinded. Do you wish
the tribe to forget how great is the importance of a child that will
some day be a mother herself, and give to your children and
grandchildren a Great Tyee? Are the people to live, to thrive, to
increase, to become more powerful with no mother-women to bear future
sons and daughters? Your minds are dead, your brains are chilled.
Still, even in your ignorance, you are my people: you and your wishes
must be considered. I call together the great medicine men, the men of
witchcraft, the men of magic. They shall decide the laws which will
follow the bearing of either boy or girl-child. What say you, oh!
mighty men?'

"Messengers were then sent up and down the coast, sent far up the
Fraser River, and to the valley lands inland for many leagues,
gathering as they journeyed all the men of magic that could be found.
Never were so many medicine men in council before. They built fires
and danced and chanted for many days. They spoke with the gods of the
mountains, with the gods of the sea, then 'the power' of decision came
to them. They were inspired with a choice to lay before the
tribes-people, and the most ancient med