“They call me Ta-la-pus, the prairie-wolf,
    And wild and free am I.
  I cannot swim like Eh-ko-lie, the whale,
    Nor like the eagle, Chack-chack, can I fly.

  “I cannot talk as does the great Ty-ee,
    Nor like the o-tel-agh* shine in the sky. 
  I am but Ta-la-pus, the prairie-wolf,
    And wild and free am I.”

[Sun.]

With every word, every step, he became more like the wolf he was describing.  Across his chanting and his “padding” in the sand came murmurs from the crowd.  He could hear “Tenas, tenas,” “To-ke-tie Tenas” (pretty boy), “Skookum-tanse,” (good strong dance).  Then at last, “Ow,” “Ow,” meaning “Our young brother.”  On and on went Ta-la-pus.  The wolf feeling crept into his legs, his soft young feet, his clutching fingers, his wonderful dark eyes that now gleamed red and lustrous in the firelight.  He was as one inspired, giving a beautiful and marvellous portrait of the wild vagabonds of the plains.  For fully ten minutes he circled and sang, then suddenly crouched on his haunches, then, lifting his head, he turned to the east, his young throat voiced one long, strange note, wolf-like he howled to the rising sun, which at that moment looked over the crest of the mountains, its first golden shaft falling full upon his face.

His chant and his strange wolf-dance were ended.  Then one loud clamor arose from the crowd.  “Tenas Tyee,” “Tenas Tyee,” they shouted, and Ta-la-pus knew that he had not failed.  But the great Squamish chief was beside him.

“Tillicums,"* he said, facing the crowd, “this boy has danced no tribal dance learned from his people or his parents.  This is his own dance, which he has made to deserve his name.  He shall get the first gifts of our great Potlatch.  Go,” he added, to one of the young men, “bring ten dollars of the white man’s chicamin (money), and ten new blankets as white as that snow on the mountain top.”

[Friends, my people.]

The crowd was delighted.  They approved the boy and rejoiced to see the real Potlatch was begun.  When the blankets were piled up beside him they reached to the top of Ta-la-pus’ head.  Then the chief put ten dollars in the boy’s hand with the simple words, “I am glad to give it.  You won it well, my Tenas Tyee.”

That was the beginning of a great week of games, feasting and tribal dances, but not a night passed but the participants called for the wild “wolf-dance” of the little boy from the island.  When the Potlatch was over, old Chief Mowitch and Lapool and Ta-la-pus returned to Vancouver Island, but no more the boy sat alone on the isolated rock, watching the mainland through a mist of yearning.  He had set foot in the wider world, he had won his name, and now honored it, instead of hating it, as in the old days when his brothers taunted him, for the great Squamish chief, in bidding good-bye to him, had said: 

“Little Ta-la-pus, remember a name means much to a man.  You despised your name, but you have made it great and honorable by your own act, your own courage.  Keep that name honorable, little Ta-la-pus; it will be worth far more to you than many blankets or much of the white man’s chicamin.”