all see you no
more?" asked Multnomah.

"On the death-trail to the spirit-land,--nor will I go alone," was the
startling reply; and the seer glided noiselessly away and disappeared
among the trees.

CHAPTER III.

WALLULAH.

Ne'er was seen
In art or nature, aught so passing sweet
As was the form that in its beauteous frame
Inclosed her, and is scattered now in dust.

CAREY: _Dante_.

Multnomah passed on to seek the lodge of his daughter Wallulah, a half
Asiatic, and the most beautiful woman in all the land of the Wauna.

Reader, would you know the tale of the fair oriental of whom was born
the sweet beauty of Wallulah?

Eighteen years before the time of our story, an East Indian ship was
wrecked on the Columbia bar, the crew and cargo falling into the hands
of the Indians. Among the rescued was a young and exceedingly lovely
woman, who was hospitably entertained by the chief of the tribe. He
and his people were deeply impressed by the grace of the fair
stranger, whose dainty beauty won for her the name of "Sea-Flower,"
because the sea, that is ever drifting weeds, had for once wafted a
flower to the shore.

As she sat on the mat in the rude bark lodge, the stern chief softened
his voice, trying to talk with her; the uncouth women gently stroked
her long soft hair, and some of the bolder and more curious touched
her white hands wonderingly, while the throng of dusky faces pressed
close round the pale, sweet creature whose eyes looked at them with a
deep, dumb woe they could not understand.

When she had become familiar with the Willamette tongue, she told them
that she was the daughter of a chief far away across the great water,
who ruled a country as broad as the land of the Wauna and far richer.
He had sent her as a bride to the ruler of another land, with a
fabulous dowry of jewels and a thousand gifts besides. But the ship
that bore her and her splendid treasures had been turned from its
course by a terrible storm. Day after day it was driven through a
waste of blackness and foam,--the sails rent, the masts swept away,
the shattered hulk hurled onward like a straw by the fury of the wind.
When the tempest had spent itself, they found themselves in a strange
sea under strange stars. Compass and chart were gone; they knew not
where they were, and caught in some unknown current, they coul