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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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