Legends of Vancouver | Page 4

chief, and
hospitality was to reign as long as pleasuring feet could dance, and
enjoying lips could laugh, and mouths partake of the excellence of the
chief's fish, game, and ollallies.
"The only shadow on the joy of it all was war, for the tribe of the great
Tyee was at war with the Upper Coast Indians, those who lived north,
near what is named by the Paleface as the port of Prince Rupert. Giant
war-canoes slipped along the entire coast, war parties paddled up and
down, war-songs broke the silences of the nights, hatred, vengeance,
strife, horror festered everywhere like sores on the surface of the earth.
But the great Tyee, after warring for weeks, turned and laughed at the
battle and the bloodshed, for he had been victor in every encounter, and
he could well afford to leave the strife for a brief week and feast in his
daughters' honor, nor permit any mere enemy to come between him and
the traditions of his race and household. So he turned insultingly deaf
ears to their war-cries; he ignored with arrogant indifference their
paddle-dips that encroached within his 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 fearlessly.
"'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 deny you nothing this day, and
some time you may bear sons to bless this peace you have asked, and to
bless their mother's sire for granting it.' Then he turned to all the young
men of the tribe and commanded: 'Build fires at sunset on all the coast
headlands--fires of welcome. Man your canoes and face the north, greet
the enemy, and tell them that I, the Tyee of the Capilanos, ask--no,
command--that they join me for a great feast in honor of my two
daughters.' And when the northern tribes got this invitation they
flocked down the coast to this feast of a Great Peace. They brought
their women and their children; they brought game and fish, gold and
white stone beads, baskets and carven ladles, and wonderful woven
blankets to lay at the feet of their now acknowledged ruler, the great
Tyee. And he, in turn, gave such a potlatch that nothing but tradition
can vie with it. There were long, glad days of joyousness, long,
pleasurable nights of dancing and camp-fires, and vast quantities of
food. The war-canoes were emptied of their deadly weapons and filled
with the daily catch of salmon. The hostile war-songs ceased, and in
their place were heard the soft shuffle of dancing feet, the singing

voices of women, the play-games of the children of two powerful tribes
which had been until now ancient enemies, for a great and lasting
brotherhood was sealed between them--their war-songs were ended
forever.
"Then the Sagalie Tyee smiled on His Indian children: 'I will make
these young-eyed maidens immortal,' He said. In the cup of His hands
He lifted the chief's two daughters and set them forever in a high place,
for they had borne two offspring--Peace and Brotherhood--each of
which is now a great Tyee ruling this land.
"And on the mountain crest the chief's daughters can be seen wrapped
in the suns, the snows, the stars of all seasons, for they have stood in
this high place for thousands of years, and will stand for thousands of
years to come, guarding the peace of the Pacific Coast and the quiet of
the Capilano Canyon."
* * * * *
This is the Indian legend of "The Lions of Vancouver" as I had it from
one who will tell me no more the traditions of his people.

THE SIWASH ROCK
Unique, and so distinct from its surroundings as to suggest rather the
handicraft of