sippi made one of its many bends,
carrying them awhile directly eastward, and below great rocks like
castles. As the canoes ran along the foot of this east shore, some of
the voyageurs cried out. For on the face of the cliff far up were two
painted monsters in glaring red, green, and black; each as large as a
calf, with deer horns, blood-colored eyes, tiger beard, a human face,
and a body covered with scales. Coiled twice around the middle, over the
head, and passing between the hind legs of each, extended a tail that
ended like a fish. So startling was this sight, which seemed a banner
held aloft heralding unseen dangers, that the men felt threatened by a
demon. But Marquette laughed at them and beckoned for the canoes to be
brought together.

"What manner of thing is this, Sieur Jolliet?"

"A pair of manitous, evidently. If we had Indians with us, we should see
them toss a little tobacco out as an offering in passing by."

"I cannot think," said Marquette, "that any Indian has been the
designer. Good painters in France would find it hard to do as well.
Besides this, the creatures are so high upon the rock that it was hard
to get conveniently at them to paint them. And how could such colors be
mixed in this wilderness?"

"We have seen what pigments and clays the Illinois used in daubing
themselves. These wild tribes may have among them men with natural skill
in delineating," said Jolliet.

"I will draw them off," Marquette determined, bringing out the papers on
which he set down his notes; and while the men stuck their paddles in
the water to hold the canoes against the current, he made his drawing.

One of the monsters seen by the explorers remained on those rocks until
the middle of our own century. It was called by the Indians the Piasa.
More than two centuries of beating winter storms had not effaced the
brilliant picture when it was quarried away by a stupidly barbarous
civilization. The town of Alton, in the state of Illinois, is a little
south of that rock where the Piasa dragons were seen.

As the explorers moved ahead on glassy waters, they looked back, and the
line of vision changing, they saw that the figures were cut into the
cliff and painted in hollow relief.

They were still talking about the monsters when they heard the roar of a
rapid ahead, and the limpid Mississippi turned southward on its course.
It was as if they had never seen the great river until this instant.
For a mighty flood, rushin