THE TWO SISTERS

father, the great Tyee, prepared to make a
feast such as the Coast had never seen. There
were to be days and days of rejoicing, the
people were to come for many leagues, were
to bring gifts to the girls and to receive gifts
of great value from the 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 Pale-
face 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 bi 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

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