TACOMA AND THE INDIAN LEGEND OF HAMITCHOU 



water," said Loolowcan. I struck fire, fire smote 

 tinder, tinder sent the flame on, until a pyre from 

 the world's free wood-pile was kindled. This boon of 

 fire, what wonder that men devised a Prometheus 

 greatest of demigods as its discoverer ? Mortals, 

 shrinking from the responsibility of a high destiny and 

 dreading to know how divine the Divine would have 

 them, always imagine an avatar of some one not lower 

 than a half-god when a gift of great price comes to the 

 world. And fire is a very priceless and beautiful boon, 

 not, as most know it, in imprisonment, barred with 

 iron, or in sooty chimneys, or in mad revolt of confla- 

 gration, but as it grows in a flashing pyramid out in 

 camp in the free woods, with eager air hurrying in on 

 every side to feed its glory. In the gloom I strike metal 

 of steel against metallic flint. From this union a 

 child is born. I receive the young spark tenderly in 

 warm "tipsoo," in a soft woolly nest of bark or grass 

 tinder. Swaddled in this he thrives. He smiles ; 

 he chuckles ; he laughs ; he dances about, does my 

 agile nursling. He will soon wear out his first infantile 

 garb, so I cover him up in shelter. I feed him with 

 digestible viands, according to his years. I give him 

 presently stouter fare, and offer exhilarating morsels 

 of fatness. All these the hearty youth assimilates, 

 and grows healthily. And now I educate him to man- 

 liness, training him on great joints, shoulders, and 

 marrowy portions. He becomes erelong a power and 

 a friend able to requite me generously for my care. 

 He aids me in preparing my feast, and we feast to- 

 gether. Afterward we talk, Flame and I, we 

 think together strong and passionate thoughts of 

 purpose and achievement. These emotions of man- 

 hood die away, and we share pensive memories of 

 happiness missed, or disdained, or feebly grasped and 

 torn away ; regrets cover these like embers, and slowly 

 over dead fieriness comes a robe of ashy gray. 



Fire in the forest is light, heat, and cheer. When 



6 7 



