ruction of human beings was denounced in terms
of great vehemence. As nine, instead of seven or three, is the general
number talked of in this section, it is not surprising that the story
should go on to state that after nine days the "Mysterious One" was
reanimated, and once more commenced his work of reformation and tuition.

Nothing in connection with the story can be objected to. By some it is
supposed to be the result of casual immigration from the regions of
Palestine, to which also is attributed the story of the flood.

Among nearly all the Indians of the Northwest there is a flood story, or
legend, and there must be hundreds of Noahs in the minds of the
story-tellers. We are told, for example, that when the Great Spirit
flooded the entire earth, there was not quite enough water to cover the
summit of Mount Tacoma. The man chosen to prevent the human race from
being entirely obliterated was warned in a dream, or by some other
means, to climb to the summit of this great mountain, where he remained
until the wicked ones below him were annihilated, without a man, woman
or child escaping. After the flood was over and the waters began to
recede, the Great Spirit hypnotized or mesmerized this solitary human
being, and created for him a wife of exceptional beauty. Together these
two recommenced the battle of life, and, as the legend runs, every human
being in existence can trace his lineage to them.

The mountain is surely worth all that has been said about it. Its great
height has already been commented upon. Standing, as it does, with its
summit 14,444 feet above the sea level, it is actually a sentinel for
almost the entire State. Hazard Stevens, the first man to climb Tacoma,
reported that it was so called by the Indians because the word means, in
their vocabulary, "mountain," and was given to Tacoma because it was a
veritable prince among hills. It was at one time called Rainier, after a
British lord, but the Indian name has generally prevailed.

Tacoma has been described by many tourists as a rival to the most
vaunted peaks of the Swiss Alps. As will be seen from the illustrations,
which are remarkably good ones, there is a dim mistiness about the
mountain. When the light is poor, there is a peculiar, almost unnatural,
look about the cloud-topped peak. When the clouds are very white, the
line of demarcation becomes faint in the extreme, and it is very hard to
distinguish one from the other. Sometimes, for days t