largest group is situated on the level plain of the rich lowland bordering the Mississippi opposite the city of St. Louis, within the bounds of our own Illinois confederacy at the time of the first discoveries. In the midst of this plain where its width is ten or twelve miles, there are still to be seen remains of a mound builders' city, which in the interest, and extent of its ruin will compare favorably with anything of the kind in the world. There are a great number of mounds and earthworks there. In the midst stands the great Cahokia pyramid, which, though not so high is said to be larger in the amount of ground it covers than the largest of the pyramids of Egypt and reaches a height of one hundred and two feet. It covers an area of sixteen acres. Three sides, the north, south and east, still retain their straight lines. The other has been somewhat washed away, probably by rains and from the pasturing of cattle on the sides. From the terrace, a well eighty feet in depth penetrates the base of the structure, which is seen to be composed almost wholly of the black sticky soil of the surrounding plain. This is not an oval mound but a pyramid with straight sides. A picture of it is presented on the adjoining page. We may readily suppose that this large mound was built by manual labor, the earth being simply carried and deposited in a pile. The curious may study further details in regard to the Cahokia Mound in "The Antiquities of Cahokia" where it is described by Breckinridge who visited it in 1811. The mounds in Illinois have never been as thoroughly investigated as we could wish, but among the works of similar and probably related pre-historic people is a mound which the writer has seen in Arizona about seven hundred or eight hundred feet long and half as broad and probably twenty-five feet high, about ten miles northeast of Phoenix. It has been explored by several reliable parties and reports of their explorations may be seen in the office of the Smithsonian Institution. The ancient cliff dwellers may have belonged to the same or a similar race. Neither they nor the Mound Builders seem to have known anything of the use of iron. They and the Mound Builders had all disappeared before the Indians came who occupied that territory both in Illinois and Arizona when first discovered by white men as appears from the fact that the Indians of Illinois when first seen by white men were unable to tell anything about the builders of any of the mounds, or the houses of the cliff dwellers, or when they were built, or why. They seem in fact hardly to have noticed their existence. Among other remains of these prehistoric people are painted rocks, with their scarcely intelligible records. The most remarkable of these pictographs in Illinois were found between Alton and the mouth of the Illinois river at the mouth of the Piasa (pronounced Pi'-a-saw) Creek. They are the two pictures. of the Piasa Bird-half dragon and half bird-cut into the rock one hundred feet up the face of the cliff and painted in extremely durable colors of green, red, and black. Near these pictures of the Piasa bird there were several pictorial writings which archaeologists think they are able to interpret. Who will be the Champollian who shall read these Rosetta stones? Unfortunately the Piasa bird and other pictographs in that neighborhood are now gone forever for within the last generation those bluffs have been quarried by the inmates of the Alton penitentiary to obtain rock to manufacture lime. However, several early copies were made and are to be found in books of history and romance. The picture of the Piasa bird as described by Marquette and copied from the drawing which he is said to have made is given on an adjoining page. Marquette, who was the first white man to see it, gives the following description: "As we coasted along rocks (near Alton), frightful for their height and length, we saw two monsters painted on one of these rocks, which startled us at first, and on which the boldest Indian dare not gaze long. They are as large as a calf, with horns on the head like a deer, a fearful look, red eyes, bearded like a tiger, the face somewhat like a man's, the body covered with scales, and the tail so long that it twice makes the turn of the body, passing over the head and down between the legs, and ending at last in a fish's tail. Green, red, and a kind of black, are the colors employed. On the whole, these two monsters are so well painted that we could not believe any Indian to have been the designer, as good painters in France would find it hard to do as well; besides this, they are so high upon the rock that it is hard to get conveniently at them. to paint them. This is pretty nearly the figure of these monsters, as I drew it off." The pictures of that Piasa Bird as seen by white men before the rocks were destroyed were much larger than calves. Marquette must have been deceived. by the distance they were from his canoes. The Piasa Bird, on account of its being such a work of art and so terrible, has become the subject of traditions amongst the Indians since Marquette's time, but such traditions as ignorant and imaginative people might originate themselves. It is possibly worth our time to relate one of these traditions. It is as follows: "Many thousand moons before the arrival of the pale faces, when the great Magalonyx and Mastodon, whose bones are now dug up, were still living in the land of green prairies, there existed a bird of such dimensions that he could easily carry off in his talons a full-grown deer. Having obtained a taste for human flesh, from that time he would prey on nothing else. He was as artful as he was powerful, and would dart suddenly and unexpectedly upon an Indian, bear him off into one of the caves of the bluff, and devour him. Hundreds of warriors attempted for years to destroy him, but without success. Whole villages were nearly depopulated, and consternation spread through all the tribes of the Illini. "Such was the state of affairs when Ouatogo, the great chief of the Illini, whose fame extended beyond the great lakes, separating himself from the rest of his tribe, fasted in solitude for the space of a whole moon, and prayed to the Great Spirit, the Master of Life, that he would protect his children from the Piasa. "On the last night of the fast the Great Spirit appeared to Ouatogo in a dream, and directed him to select twenty of his bravest warriors, each armed with a bow and poisoned arrows, and conceal them in a designated spot. Near the place of concealment another warrior was to stand in open view, as a victim for the Piasa, which they must shoot the instant he pounced upon his prey. "When the chief awoke in the morning, he thanked the Great Spirit, and returning to his tribe told them his vision. The warriors were quickly selected and placed in ambush as directed. Ouatogo offered himself as the victim. He was willing to die for his people. Placing himself in open view on the bluffs, he soon saw the Piasa perched on the cliff eyeing his prey. The chief drew up his manly form to his utmost height, and, planting his feet firmly upon the earth, he began to chant the deathsong of an Indian warrior. The moment after, the Piasa arose into the air, and swift as the thunderbolt darted down on his victim. Scarcely had the horrid creature reached his prey before every bow was sprung and every arrow was sent quivering to the feather into his body. The Piasa uttered a fearful scream, that sounded far over the opposite side of the river, and expired. Ouatogo was unharmed. Not an arrow, not even the talons of the bird, had touched him. The Master of Life, in admiration of Ouatogo's deed, had held over him an invisible shield. "There was the wildest rejoicing among the Illini, and the brave chief was carried in triumph to the council house, where it was solemnly agreed that in memory of the great event in their nation's history, the image of the Piasa should be engraved on the bluff. "Such is the Indian tradition. Of course I cannot vouch for its truth. This much, however, is certain, that the figure of a huge bird, out in the solid rock, is still there, and at a height that is perfectly inaccessible. "How and for what purpose it was made I leave it for others to determine. Even at this day an Indian never passes the spot in his canoe without firing his gun at the figure of the Piasa. The marks of the balls on the rock are almost innumerable." These works of the pre-historic races are interesting to us because they are within the territory occupied by our Illinois confederacy, and the story of the Piasa bird because it was probably the invention of the Illinois and had the chief of that tribe for its hero. The fact that the Indians who were here when Marquette and other missionaries came really knew nothing about these old ruins leads archaeologists to believe that the mound builders had gone long before our tribes came, as otherwise our tribes would probably have had some tradition of their presence or of how they were driven out. The mound builders seem to have enjoyed a higher state of civilization than the Indian tribes who succeeded them. Sic transit gloria mundi. The Indians who were found here were a barbarous and savage race, as were most of those then found within the present territory of the United States, though our tribes were probably not so fierce and brutal as many others. Much as we most sincerely regret the fate of the Indians who seem to be passing away, the author-as a present representative of a family which, for seven generations, has lived each generation on the Indian frontier,-may be pardoned if he suggests that there seems to have been some excuse for the maxim of the old pioneers that "there were no good Indians but dead Indians." This, like all rules, of course, is to be understood with its exceptions, some of which will have attention later. There were some noble red men, and many of them were barbarously treated by infamous white men. It is a painful fact that the selfish, cunning and strong from that day to this have always imposed upon, trodden down and destroyed the weak, unwary and unwise, whether white, red or black, and are doing it in our very midst to-day notwithstanding all our efforts and all our constitutions and laws made to prevent it. The laws of nature and the laws of God, which are the same thing, forbid that the magnificent prairies and forests with which He has blessed mankind. should be permitted to remain in their primitive state as pasture ground for bison and bears in order to accommodate Indians who were unwilling to work, thus violating God's first command to man—“In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread"—while men who are willing to work and who can make one acre produce more food than an Indian obtained from a whole section must be allowed to go hungry. The Indians had no title to the land, and they could not use it. They did not even have possession of any of it except for villages in which they made no valuable improvements. They lived here and there. Wherever they could find fishing, they set up their wigwams or built little cabins sometimes of logs plastered with mud and covered with grass. We must also remember that the first white men that came to visit the Indians came for the purpose of teaching them a better mode of living, a thing they needed to know but were very slow to learn. The most beautiful parts of Virginia and Kentucky, the Shenandoah Valley and the Blue Grass region of Kentucky were never settled by the Indians at all but were left wildernesses and were the constant scenes of their internecine wars, savages fighting savages in a war of destruction and extermination, and this before ever the white men came. The name Kentucky, which the Indians gave to that country meant in their language "the dark and bloody ground" and they had made it such, while now to many "the old Kentucky Home" is the most heavenly place on earth. Nor can the white men be charged with killing off the Indians by fighting them; for between the time the first white men came and the time when they could exert any influence over the Indians or fight them aggressively, many more Indians were killed by Indians than were ever killed by white men. It is the usual characteristic of all Indian warriors that they indulged in |