Weekly Chemawa American., September 25, 1908, Page 4, Image 4

4 THE CHEM.
"Jump Off Joe."
Continued from Page 2)
sickness and 'death. And the great
spirit answering, told the wise man
the cause of the plague that had strick
en the people. It was not right and
could not be he said, that the chief of the
Siletz should wed the daughter of an
unknown race, whose skin was white and
not red, whose hair shone golden like the
morning sun through a mist and whose
eyes were blue like the skies ofjthespring
time. Unless the lovers stifled their
affection and walked their paths apart,
the plague would pursue the people until
all were gone, the great spirit said. If,
however the match were broken off and
the young chief took a wife from among
his own people, all would be well again.
The sun would shine. The crops would
grow. The streams would run to the sea
once more. The game would come back
to the mountains and plenty would fill
the land. ' .
Grieved beyond words at the message
of the great spirit, for the wise men
shared the universal love for the golden
haired princess held by all the tribe, they
yet bore the tidings to the tribesmen.
A council was called by the old men
of the Siletz and the lovers were sum
moned before it, where the words of the
great spirit were told them, but the lov-.
ers, blinded by their affection, spurned
the high command and refused to obey.
Then the council, determined to save
the remainder of the tribe from the di
vine displeasure, decreed that the -gir
should die, and that the young, chief
should be held captive until the sentence
had been carried out.
Standing in the doorway of a council
lodge the young chief looked out upon
the pea, restless, surging along the sands,
WA AMERICAN
With a whispered word to his sweetheart,
he suddenly dashed away with her to
where, half buried in the sand stood a
vast stone shoe, cast off from some giant
foot in ages gone, its heel to the shore,
its toe washed by. the never ceasing surf.
Clambering up the steep and slippery
sides of this rock the lovers begged the
pursuing tribesmen for a short time in
which to make their vows of renuncia
tion one to another, and, their prayer
granted sat down hand in hand while the
tide crept in and dashed higher and
higher on the rock.
There, amid the dashing spray, the
two lovers, the young chieftain and the
nameless fairhaired girl, plighted their
undying love, and, when the tide had
cut them from the land shouted defiance
at the wise men watching the shoreward
rocks.
The tide reached the full, paused and
fell again, and still the young lovers
hurled insults at the tribesmen and chal
lenged the great spirit to separate them.
The waves washed lower and lower
about the base of the great rock until at
last, the avenging warriors clambered
through the spray and up its sides
pledged to carry out the sentence of the
council. But the young chief, standing on
the highest point, clasped the princess in
in his arms and lifting her high sprang
out into the Open sea, shouting .wild
defiance as he fell.
And today the summer pilgrim rest
ing in the crevices of the giant stone
shoe inav. listen, if he is wise and knows
the way to the heart of the red man, to
this tale from the lips of one of the last
of the Siletz, whose age-dimmed eyes
light with the fire of youthful memory ,
as he tells the white man how Jump Off
Joe received its name.