Page:Cathlamet On the Columbia.djvu/74

 no living Indians knew the name or lineage of the dead or resented the resurrection that the white children accomplished in searching for Indian ornaments.They tumbled the bones out of the bed of loam and leaves that had gathered over them, and they were the bones of a hundred years gone. In sport the children put them together and speculated upon what manner of men they were, and the Indian children joined in the game, for the dead were the old, old people.

Below the Indian village the ground was black and the plough turned up countless skulls and bones with flints and Indian arrowheads, bespeaking long occupation and a numerous population.

Long before 1800 the Indian had evidently reached the height of his power and prosperity,