TACOMA AND THE INDIAN LEGEND OF HAMITCHOU 



ing of breeze-shaken leaves, went careering his answer, 

 taken up and repeated scornfully, *I dare/ And after 

 a silence, while the daring one trembled and would 

 gladly have ventured to shout, for the companionship 

 of his own voice, there came across from the vast snow 

 wall of Tacoma a tone like the muffled, threatening 

 plunge of an avalanche into a chasm, 'I dare/ 



'You dare/ said Tamanoiis, enveloping him with 

 a dread sense of an unseen, supernatural presence ; 

 'you pray for wealth of hiaqua. Listen !' 



"This injunction was hardly needed ; the miser 

 was listening with dull eyes kindled and starting. He 

 was listening with every rusty hair separating from 

 its unkempt mattedness, and outstanding upright, a 

 caricature of an aureole. 



"Listen/ said Tamanoiis, in the noonday hush. 

 And then Tamanoiis vouchsafed at last the great 

 secret of the hiaqua mines, while in terror near to death 

 the miser heard, and every word of guidance toward 

 the hidden treasure of the mountains seared itself 

 into his soul ineffaceably. 



"Silence came again more terrible now than the 

 voice of Tamanoiis, silence under the shadow of the 

 great cliff, silence deepening down the forest vistas, 

 silence filling the void up to the snows of Tacoma. 

 All life and motion seemed paralyzed. At last Skai-ki, 

 the Blue-Jay, the wise bird, foe to magic, sang cheerily 

 overhead. Her song seemed to refresh again the 

 honest laws of nature. The buzz of life stirred every- 

 where again, and the inspired miser rose and hastened 

 home to prepare for his work. 



"When Tamanoiis has put a great thought in a 

 man's brain, has whispered him a great discovery 

 within his power, or hinted at a great crime, that 

 spiteful demon does not likewise suggest the means of 

 accomplishment. 



"The miser, therefore, must call upon his own skill 

 to devise proper tools, and upon his own judgment 



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