Legends of Vancouver by E. Pauline Johnson
page 69 of 107 (64%)
page 69 of 107 (64%)
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He gave a swift glance at my dark skin, then nodded. "You are
one of us," he said, with evidently no thought of a possible contradiction. "And you will understand, or I should not tell you. You will not smile at the story, for you are one of us." "I am one of you, and I shall understand," I answered. It was a full half-hour before we neared the island, yet neither of us spoke during that time; then, as the "grey gull" shaped itself into rock and tree and crag, I noticed in the very centre a stupendous pile of stone lifting itself skyward, without fissure or cleft; but a peculiar haziness about the base made me peer narrowly to catch the perfect outline. "It is the 'Grey Archway,'" he explained, simply. Only then did I grasp the singular formation before us: the rock was a perfect archway, through which we could see the placid Pacific shimmering in the growing colors of the coming sunset at the opposite rim of the island. "What a remarkable whim of Nature!" I exclaimed, but his brown hand was laid in a contradictory grasp on my arm, and he snatched up my comment almost with impatience. "No, it was not Nature," he said. "That is the reason I say you will understand--you are one of us--you will know what I tell you is true. The Great Tyee did not make that archway, it was--" here his voice lowered--"it was magic, red man's medicine and magic--you savvy?" |
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