The Bridge of the Gods

ild voice pro

Bourke

. Tohomish went with him. For some distance they walked together, th

under a giant cottonwood and

did you do it? Why did you bring into a council of warriors dreams fit

saw and my ears hea

illamettes shall rule the tribes as long as the bridge shall

ion crossed Tohom

e bridge. Lean not your hand on it, for it is 70 as i

replied the chief impat

, and the gloomy look h

is the secret of the Great Spirit; and I cannot tell it lest he bec

is it you are hiding and covering up with words?

nce would go from me, the fire would die from my heart and th

the seer had touched the latent superstition in his nature. They referred to that strongest and most powerf

king delirium or feverish sleep, was the charm that was to control his future. Be it bird or beast, dream or mystic revelation, 71 it was his totem or tomanowos, and gave him strength, cunning, or swiftness, sometimes knowledge of the future, imparting to him its own characteristic

ter has grown a sob of pain, and sorrow and death have become what the feast, the battle, and the chase are to other men. It is the black secret, the secret of the coming trouble, that makes Tohomish's voice like the voice of a pine; so that men say it has in it sweetne

determined look, superstition struggled for a moment and

, the tomanowos would be angry, and drain your spirit 72 from you and cast you aside as the serpent casts its skin. And you must be the

hen he spoke in the council. Though the shadows fell more and more ominous and threatening across his path

nomah, in a tone that was half inquiry, half command; for the seer whose mysterious

al to him. He had not, since the council, attempted to change the chief's decision by a single

egraded face contrasted so strongly. "Yes, he will go to the council, and his voice shall bend and turn the hearts of men as