divisions that they have to make. The first in fight, he is always the last to leave the field.
Most of these savages are capable of sustaining a very interesting conversation, upon matters not out of their range; they love to jest and take a joke very well; they never dispute nor become heated in conversation; they never interrupt any one whomsoever; they always reflect a few moments before answering in an important matter, or else defer their replies to the next day. They have no expression to blaspheme the name of the Lord; their most injuri ous term is " dog." They live scattered in cabins. The profound peace in which they live comes in large part from their letting every man do what seems to him good. Often years will pass without the least quarrel; but when intoxicated with liquor, which is brought them in large quantities, all their good qualities vanish; they no longer resemble men; everybody takes flight around them; their yells and howls are frightful; they hurl themselves upon each other, bite noses and ears and rend one another in a horrible manner. Since we came among them, four Otoes and three Potawatomies have been killed in drunken rows.
Here is a very singular tradition, which I have from the head chief of the nation; 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 Alton and the mouth of the Illinois River, the traveler 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 devours men." At this place appears, on a smooth perpendicular rock, the figure of an enormous bird with outspread wings chiseled in the rock higher than a man can reach. The bird that this figure represents, and whose name is borne by the little stream, has been called the Piasa