Page:History of Oregon Literature.djvu/39

 men carry water and throw it upon them so that they broke into small pieces. Of these pieces he had the Indians gather those having thin, sharp edges, carry them out upon the plain and place them in small heaps at regular intervals. . ..

When he thought there were flints enough for his purpose placed about the plain, Koyoda had the Indians gather in tribes or family groups. Then causing them to fall into a deep sleep, he placed them upon their backs in great rows, each family or tribe to itself. Having the groups finally arranged to his satisfaction, he proceeded to one side of the plain at the outer edge of all the mass of people, took up a sharp flint from one of the heaps and began cutting mouths.

His first thought was to make just a straight mouth and leave the rest to nature, but, as he worked, it occurred to him that a man should have one sort of mouth and a woman another sort, that the mouth of a baby should be different from that of a grown person and the mouth of an old man should be different from that of a youth. From this time forward he studied the faces of his subjects more carefully and fashioned the mouths accordingly. Koyoda could read the hearts of men from a study of their faces. He so made the mouths that everyone might read the characters back of them.

There were many, many people. Koyoda worked for days and days. There were times when he became very tired; times when he thought of quitting, but somehow he managed to keep going and finally finished the last one.

Of course, at times when he was so terribly tired he did not do such nice work as when he was fresh. At those times, too, he often rested one hand with most of his weight upon the nose of the Indian whose mouth he was fashioning. This, of course, tended to flatten out that particular nose and sometimes left it in no very pretty shape. It is because of these things which we have just mentioned that some Indians have ugly mouths, some have pretty mouths, some have thick lips and some have flat noses, but they all, somehow, tell the story of the personality back of them.

After he had finished the last month, Koyoda awakened