he children climbed
out of the cloud and came down the mountain side. The good
animals also climbed out of the cloud. Thus there are now no
snakes or bad animals on Takhoma.

[Illustration: Copyright, 1897, by E. S. Curtis. Rough Climbing, an
illustration of perils encountered in crossing the glaciers.]

Childish and fantastic as they seem to our wise age, such legends show
the Northwestern Indian struggling to interpret the world about him.
Like savages everywhere, he peopled the unknown with spirits good and
bad, and mingled his conception of a beneficent deity with his ideas
of the evil one. Symbolism pervaded his crude but very positive mind.
Ever by his side the old Siwash felt the Power that dwelt on Tacoma,
protecting and aiding him, or leading him to destruction. Knowing
{p.040} nothing of true worship, his primitive intelligence could
imagine God only in things either the most beautiful or the most
terrifying; and the more we know the Mountain, the more easily we
shall understand why he deemed the majestic peak a factor of his
destiny--an infinite force that could, at will, bless or destroy. For
to us, too, though we have no illusions as to its supernatural powers,
the majestic peak may bring a message. Before me is a letter from an
inspiring New England writer, who has well earned the right to
appraise life's values. "I saw the great Mountain three years ago,"
she says; "would that it might ever be my lot to see it again! I love
to dream of its glory, and its vast whiteness is a moral force in my
life."

Perpetual
And snowy tabernacle of the land,
While purples at thy base this peaceful sea,
And all thy hither slopes in evening bathe,
I hear soft twilight voices calling down
From all thy summits unto prayer and love.

--_Francis Brooks: "Mt. Rainier."_

[Illustration: Ptarmigan, the Grouse of the ice-fields. Unlike its
neighbor, the Mountain Goat, this bird is tame, and may sometimes be
caught by hand. In winter its plumage turns from brown to white.]

[Illustration: The Mountain, seen from Puyallup River, near Tacoma.]

[Illustration {p.041}: Falls of the Little Mashell River, near
Eatonville and the road to the Mountain.]

[Illustration {p.042}: Old Stage Road to Longmire Springs and the
National Park Inn, showing the tall, clear trunks of the giant firs.]

{p.043}
[Illustration: On Pierce County's splendid scenic road to the
Mountain. Passin