peculiarity until I harked back to the boy of Brockton Point and asked
how it was that his body and brain escaped this affliction.

"He was all good, and had no greed," he replied. "He proof against all
bad things."

I nodded understandingly, and he proceeded to tell me that all
successful Indian fighters and warriors carried somewhere about their
person a joint of a sea-serpent's vertebra, that the medicine men threw
"the power" about them so that they were not personally affected by
this little "charm," but that immediately they approached an enemy the
"charm" worked disaster, and victory was assured to the fortunate
possessor of the talisman. There was one particularly effective joint
that had been treasured and carried by the warriors of a great Squamish
family for a century. These warriors had conquered every foe they
encountered, until the talisman had become so renowned that the totem
pole of their entire "clan" was remodelled, and the new one crested by
the figure of a single joint of a sea-serpent's vertebra.

About this time stories of Napoleon's first great achievements drifted
across the seas; not across the land--and just here may be a clue to
buried coast-Indian history, which those who are cleverer at research
than I, can puzzle over. The chief was most emphatic about the source
of Indian knowledge of Napoleon.

"I suppose you heard of him from Quebec, through, perhaps, some of the
French priests," I remarked.

"No, no," he contradicted hurriedly. "Not from East; we hear it from
over the Pacific, from the place they call Russia." But who conveyed
the news or by what means it came he could not further enlighten me.
But a strange thing happened to the Squamish family about this time.
There was a large blood connection, but the only male member living was
a very old warrior, the hero of many battles, and the possessor of the
talisman. On his death-bed his women of three generations gathered
about him; his wife, his sisters, his daughters, his granddaughters,
but not one man, nor yet a boy of his own blood stood by to speed his
departing warrior spirit to the land of peace and plenty.

"The charm cannot rest in the hands of women," he murmured almost with
his last breath. "Women may not war and fight other nations or other
tribes; women are for the peaceful lodge and for the leading of little
children. They are for holding baby hands, teaching baby feet to walk.
No, the charm cannot rest with y