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LEGENDS OF VANCOUVER

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 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 fear-
lessly.

“‘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

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