gry tamahnawas. But the storm-god
hurled him down the mountain side. Miser fell into a deep sleep. Many,
many snows after, he awoke to find himself far from the summit, in a
pleasant country of beautiful meadows carpeted with flowers, abounding
in camas roots, and musical with the song of birds. He had grown very
old, with white hair falling to his shoulders. His ikta was empty,
save for a few dried leaves. Recognizing the scene about him as
Saghalie Illahe, he sought his old tent. It was where he had left it.
There, too, was his klootchman, or wife, grown old, like himself.
Thirty snows, she said, she had awaited his return. Back they went to
their {p.039} home on the bank of the Cowlitz, where he became a
famous tamahnawas man, and spent the rest of his days in honor, for
his tribesmen recognized that the aged Indian's heart had been
marvelously softened and his mind enriched by his experience upon the
peak. He had lost his love for hiaqua.

[Illustration: A silhouette on Pinnacle Peak, with Paradise Valley and
the Nisqually Glacier below.]

Among the familiar myths of the Mountain was one of a great flood, not
unlike that of Noah. I quote Miss Judson's version:

WHY THERE ARE NO SNAKES ON TAKHOMA.

A long, long time ago, Tyhce Sahale became angry with his people.
Sahale ordered a medicine man to take his bow and arrow and shoot
into the cloud which hung low over Takhoma. The medicine man shot
the arrow, and it stuck fast in the cloud. Then he shot another
into the lower end of the first. Then he shot another into the
lower end of the second. He shot arrows until he had made a chain
which reached from the cloud to the earth. The medicine man told
his klootchman and his children to climb up the arrow trail. Then
he told the good animals to climb up the arrow trail. Then the
medicine man climbed up himself. Just as he was climbing into the
cloud, he looked back. A long line of bad animals and snakes were
also climbing up the arrow trail. Therefore the medicine man
broke the chain of arrows. Thus the snakes and bad animals fell
down on the mountain side. Then at once it began to rain. It
rained until all the land was flooded. Water reached even to the
snow line of Takhoma. When all the bad animals and snakes were
drowned, it stopped raining. After a while the waters sank again.
Then the medicine man and his klootchman and t