Chapter 4
SENDING OUT THE RUNNERS.Speed, Malise, speed; the dun deer’s hide
On fleeter foot was never tied;
Herald of battle, fate and fear
Stretch around thy fleet career.
Scott.
At early morning, the sachems had gathered in the council-grove,
Multnomah on the seat of the war-chief, and twenty runners before
him. They were the flower of the Willamette youth, every one of
royal birth, handsome in shape and limb, fleet-footed as the deer.
They were slender and sinewy in build, with aquiline features and
sharp searching eyes.
Their garb was light. Leggins and moccasins had been laid aside;
even the hiagua shells were stripped from their ears. All
stood nerved and eager for the race, waiting for the word that was
to scatter them throughout the Indian empire, living thunderbolts
