z
O > e Conservative , n
the posse , for the tatter reached the
Beud soon after the slaves loft , and the
t\yo parties must have passed shortly
afterwards , One story is that when
capture seemed imminent a largo dry
goods box was secured and placed in a
hayrack. Theii.with the negroes under
the box and hay piled high above , they
drove serenely on , even going so far as
to point put the road to Council Bluffs
as the direction in which a party with
some negroes had disappeared. In the
other version , a lumber wagon , with
lumber instead of hay , figures as the
mode of conveyance. Personally we
prefer the more plausible and pic
turesque hayrack.
JAMES S. JACKSON.
THE PIASA BIRD.
A few years ago travellers would
occasionally notice in railroad yards a
freight car , bearing all over its broad
side a flying dragon of more than
Chinese ugliness , labeled "Piasa
Bird. ' ' These cars may still bo circu
lating ; the writer has not noticed any
of them lately. He always took the
Piasa Bird to be a puerile effort of a
misguided imagination , seeking the
startling in advertisement. This was
a mistake , however , and moreover an
injustice to some enthusiastic student
of local antiquities , no doubt ; for the
cars hailed from Alton , Illinois.
From a passage observed in one of
Father DeSmet's books , it appears
that the Piasa Bird is a historical
character. This passage was stumbled
on in 0110 of the missionary's French
journals. It does not occur in any of
his published English travels. He
says :
"Here is a very singular tradition
which I have from the head chief of
the Pottawattomies ; it is current
among all the tribes of the Illini , or
of the states of Illinois , Indiana and
Ohio. In ascending the Mississippi ,
above St. Louis , between A'ltou and
the mouth of the Illinois river , the
traveller observes , between two high
hills , a narrow passage where a small
stream enters the river. This stream
is called the Piasa , which means in
Indian language 'the bird that de
vours men. ' At tins place appears ,
on a smooth , perpendicular'rock , the
figure of an enormous bird with out
spread wings chiselled in the rook
higher than a man can reach. The
bird that this figure represents , and
whoso name is borne by the little
stream , has been called the Piasa by
the Indians. They say that "several
thousand moons before the arrival of
the whites , when the great Mammoth
or Mastodon , which Manaboojoo de
stroyed and whose bones are still
found , was feeding on the grass of
their immense green prairies , there was
a bird of such monstrous bigness that
ho would carry off an elk in his claws
without trouble. This bird , having
tasted human flesh one day , would
thereafter toucli no other meat. His
cunning was not less than his might ;
ho would swoop suddenly upon an
Indian , carry him away to one of the
caverns of the rock and devour him.
Hundreds of warriors had endeavored
to destroy him , but without success.
For several years entire villages were
almost devastated , and terror spread
among all the tribes of. the Illini. At
last Ontaga , a war chief whoso fame
extended beyond the great lakes , went
apart from his tribe , fasted for the
space of a moon in solitude and prayed
the Great Spirit , the Master of Life ,
to deliver his children from the
clutches of the Piasa. The last night
of his fast , the Great Chief appeared
to him in a dream and told him to
choose twenty warriors , each armed
with a bow and a poisoned arrow , and
to conceal them in a designated spot.
A single warrior should show himself
openly to servo as a victim to the
Piasa ; all the others should let fly
their arrows at the bird , as he de
scended upon his prey. On waking
the chief thanked the Great Spirit and
returned to tell his dream to the
tribe. The warriors were chosen
without delay , armed and set in am
bush. Outaga offered himself as the
victim ; he was ready to die for his
nation. Climbing upon an eminence ,
he saw the Piasa perched upon the
rock ; he stood erect , planted his feet
firmly on the ground , and laid his
right hand on his heart , which did
not flutter , and struck up with a
steady voice the death song of a war
rior. At once the Piasa soared aloft
and darted like lightning upon the
chief. All the bows were stretched
and every arrow buried itself to the
feather in his body. The Piasa ut
tered a wild and frightful cry and fell
dying at Ontaga's feet. Neither the
arrows nor the birds claws had touched
the warrior. The Master of Life , to
reward his generous devotion , had
suspended an invisible buckler above
his head. It is in 'memory of this
event that the image of the Piasa was
chiselled into the rock. '
"Such is the Indian tradition ; I
give it as it came to me. In any
event , it is certain that the figure of
an enormous bird is to bo seen at an
inaccessible height upon the rook ,
where it appears to bo carved. No
Indian ever passes by the place hi his
canoe without firing his gun at it.
The marks left by bullets on the rock
are almost innumerable. The bones
of thousands of men are piled in the
caverns around the Piasa ; how , by
whom and why , it is not easy to
guess. "
The historian Parkman also speaks
of something that must be Father De-
Smot's Piasa Bird , or its predecessor.
In relating Joliet and Marquetto's
voyage down the Mississippi in 1678 ,
ho says :
"Presently they beheld a sight
which reminded them that the devil
was still lord paramount of this wild
erness. On the flat face of a high
rock , were painted in red , black , and
green a pair of .monsters , each 'as
large as a calf , with horns like a
deer , red eyes , a beard like a tiger ,
and a frightful expression of counte
nance. The face is something like
that of a man , the body covered with
scales ; and the tail so long that it
passes entirely round the body , over
the head and between the legs , end
ing like that of a fish. ' Such is the
account which the worthy Jesuit
gives of these manitous , or Indian
gods. He confesses that at first they
frightened him ; and his imagination
and that of his credulous companions
were so wrought xipon by these un
hallowed efforts of Indian art , that
they continued for a long time to talk
of them as they plied their paddles. ' '
Parkman adds a note of his own , as
follows :
"The rocli where these figures wore
painted is immediately above the city
of Alton. The tradition of their ex
istence remains , though they are en
tirely effaced by time. In 1867 when
I passed the place , a part of the rock
had been quarried away , and instead
of Marftuetto's monsters , it bore a
huge advertisement of 'Plantation
Bitters. ' Some years ago , certain
persons , with more zeal than knowl
edge , proposed to restore the figures ,
after conceptions of their own ; but
the idea was abandoned.
"Marquette made a drawing of the
two monsters , but it is lost. I have ,
however , a facsimile of a map made
a few years later by order of the In-
teudant Duchesneau ; which is decor
ated with the portrait of one of them ,
answering to Marquette's description ,
and probably copied from his drawing.
St. Cosme , who saw them in 1699 ,
says that they wore oven then almost
effaced. Douay and Joutel also speak
of them ; the former , bitterly hostile
to his Jesuit contemporaries , charging
Marquette with exaggeration in IHB
account of them. Joutel could see
nothing terrifying in their appear
ance ; but ho says that his Indians
made sacrifices to them as they
passed. ' '
So the freight-car artist appears to
be amply justified.
A. T. RICHARDSON.
TO CURE A COLD IN ONE DAY.
Take Laxative Brome Quinine Tablets.
All druggists refund the money if it
fails to cure. E. W. Grove's signature -i
is on each box. 25o. , frV
t *