(Siwash)
any moons before the Siwashes used iron or gold or silver a strange thing happened. It must be true, for it is told by the old men to the boys to this day. White people do not always believe it.
There lived a great Siwash hunter in the land in the west near the great river full of salmon, where it comes into the sea. His arrows gave him much meat; his great canoe and his spear gave him much fish. He had very many strings of shell money; the Siwash people call it hiaqua.
No one ever loved hiaqua as much as this great hunter loved it. He had many strings of it around his neck. He was rich; but when he waited in the trees in the forest for the elk or the deer to come that he might shoot them, he was always counting the shells on these strings.
He would say to himself: “I shall have more hiaqua than the great chief. I shall have more than two chiefs.” [[193]]
When the great forest was very still his tamanous would come to him. It was like an elk, and it would talk with him. He waited at the foot of the great white snow mountain for the elk to come.
The great mountain is called Mount Tacoma. This was the home of the Great Tamanous, who puts only good thoughts into the hearts of all people; when the hunter sat long in the tree and looked at the mountain he was ashamed in his heart.
The Great Tamanous, who is the Good Great Spirit, seemed to ask him, “Where did you get it, that last string of hiaqua?”
And he had to say: “I tore some of the shells from the faces of helpless squaws; from their noses and from their lips. I paid them for the shells with elk meat so dry that they cannot eat it. I know they are starving, but they could see; they did not have to take the meat. They could eat leaves and berries. I know there are no berries, but they could go on the long trail and find some.”