s away, and
plunged into the cold water. After repeatedly immersing himself, he
waded back to the shore and lay down to dry in the sun. The shock to
his nervous system of plunging from a hot steam-bath into ice-cold
water fresh from the snow peaks of the north had roused all his latent
vitality. He had recovered enough to be sullen and resentful to Cecil
when he came up; and after vainly trying to talk with or help him, the
missionary left him.

It is characteristic of the Indian, perhaps of most half-animal races,
that their moral conduct depends on physical feeling. Like the animal,
they are good-humored, even sportive, when all is well; like the
animal, they are sluggish and unreasoning in time of sickness.

Cecil went back to the camp. He found that the archery games were
over, and that a great day of gambling had begun. He was astonished at
the eagerness with which all the Indians flung themselves into it.
Multnomah alone took no part, and Tohomish, visible only at the
council, was not there. But with those two exceptions, chiefs,
warriors, all flung themselves headlong into the game.

First, some of the leading chiefs played at "hand," and each tribe
backed its chief. Furs, skins, weapons, all manner of Indian wealth
was heaped in piles behind the gamblers, constituting the stakes; and
they were divided among the tribes of the winners,--each player
representing a tribe, and his winnings going, not to himself, but to
his people. This rule applied, of course, only to the great public
games; in private games of "hand" each successful player kept his own
spoils.

Amid the monotonous chant that always accompanied gambling, the two
polished bits of bone (the winning one marked, the other not) were
passed secretly from hand to hand. The bets were made as to who held
the marked stick and in which hand, then a show of hands was made and
the game was lost and won.

From "hand" they passed to _ahikia_, a game like that of dice, played
with figured beaver teeth or disks of ivory, which were tossed up,
everything depending on the combination of figures presented in their
fall. It was played recklessly. The Indians were carried away by
excitement. They bet anything and everything they had. Wealthy chiefs
staked their all on the turn of the ivory disks, and some were
beggared, some enriched. Cecil noticed in particular Mishlah the
Cougar, chief of the Molallies. He was like a man intoxicated. His
huge bestial face was all