by the Indians. They say that " several thousand moons before the arrival of the whites, when the great mammoth or mastodon, which Nanaboojoo or Na-na-bush destroyed 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 he would carry off an elk in his claws without trouble. This bird, having tasted human flesh one day, would thereafter touch no other meat; his cunning was not less than his might; he would stoop suddenly upon an Indian, carry him away to one of the cav
erns 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 Outaga, a war chief whose 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 claws of the Piasa. The last night of his fast, the Great Spirit 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 serve as a victim to the Piasa; all the others should let fly their arrows at the bird, as he descended 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 ambush. Outaga offered himself as the victim ~ he was ready to die for his nation. Climbing upon an eminence, he saw the Piasa perched on 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 warrior. 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 uttered a wild and frightful cry and fell dying at Outaga's feet. 69