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They pointed him out to one another as he rode up, the man of graceful presence and delicate build; they thronged around him, naked men and half-clad women, squalid, fierce as wild beasts, and gazed wonderingly. "It is he, the white man," they whispered among themselves. "See the long beard." "See the white hands." "Stand back, the Great Spirit sent him; he is strong tomanowos; beware his anger."
Like one in a dream he listened, while the young Willamette told him in a low tone that this bridge had been built by the gods when the world was young, that it was the tomanowos of the Willamettes, that while it stood they would be strongest of all the tribes, and that if it fell they would fall with it.
He knew it, but it only made his despotic will the stronger. Against the opposition of the council and the warning of Tohomish, against tomanowos and Spee-ough, ominous as they were even to him, rose up the instinct which was as much a part of him as life itself, the instinct to battle and to conquer.
What wonder that the thought of death should fill the air, when we have slain a whole people at a single blow! Do we not know too that their spirits would try to frighten our dreamers with omens and bad tomanowos? Was it not bad tomanowos that Tohomish saw?
The fall of the ancient tomanowos of the Willamettes had a tremendous significance to the restless tributaries, and already the confederacy of the Wauna was crumbling like a rope of sand. Those tribes would meet no more in peace on the island of council. Wails on the wind, fades out the sunset quite, And in my heart and on the earth is night.
His glance, his gesture held them back; they paused irresolutely, even in the presence of Multnomah; weak as Cecil was, he was the great white tomanowos still, and they dared not touch him. There was a pause, an intense silence.
"We view as one who hath an evil sight," He answered, "plainly objects far remote." CAREY: Dante. The night came to an end at last, a night not soon forgotten by the Oregon Indians, and destined to be remembered in tale and tomanowos lore long after that generation had passed away.
He seemed like a man whose animal life still survived, but whose soul was dead. What he said at first had no relation to the matter before the council. Every Indian had his tomanowos appointed him by the Great Spirit from his birth, and that tomanowos was the strength of his life. Its influence grew with his growth; the roots of his being were fed in it; it imparted its characteristics to him.
The cry of woe I heard far off then is nearer now, and the throng on the death-trail passes thicker and swifter. That which covered their faces is lifted, and their faces are the faces of Willamettes, and Multnomah is among them. The time is close at hand." "Say this before our enemies, and, strong tomanowos though you are, you die!" said the chief, laying his hand on his tomahawk.
Now I am here, and it is sweet to be with you, but the heart of Multnomah listens to hear you speak." He still went on stroking her hair softly, reverently. It seemed the only caress of which he was capable, but it had in it a stern and mournful tenderness. "Speak to me! The dead talk to the tomanowos men and the dreamers. You are mine; talk to me; I am in need.
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