Accordingly, the negotiation was
protracted with true diplomatic skill. Conference after conference was
held with the two ambassadors. Comcomly was extravagant in his terms;
rating the charms of his daughter at the highest price, and indeed she
is represented as having one of the flattest and most aristocratical
heads in the tribe. At length the preliminaries were all happily
adjusted. On the 20th of July, early in the afternoon, a squadron of
canoes crossed over from the village of the Chinooks, bearing the royal
family of Comcomly, and all his court.
That worthy sachem landed in princely state, arrayed in a bright blue
blanket and red breech clout, with an extra quantity of paint and
feathers, attended by a train of half-naked warriors and nobles. A horse
was in waiting to receive the princess, who was mounted behind one of
the clerks, and thus conveyed, coy but compliant, to the fortress.
Here she was received with devout, though decent joy, by her expecting
bridegroom.
Her bridal adornments, it is true, at first caused some little dismay,
having painted and anointed herself for the occasion according to the
Chinook toilet; by dint, however, of copious ablutions, she was freed
from all adventitious tint and fragrance, and entered into the nuptial
state, the cleanest princess that had ever been known, of the somewhat
unctuous tribe of the Chinooks.
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