this they resembled the iguanodons and other "mud pythons" of that
period, but no animal ever had such force of tail as these terrible
monster fiendmen who warred together all over the Northwest.

As ages went on, and the fires of the Cascades began to accomplish
their duty of expanding the world, earthquakes and eruptions
diminished in virulence. A winter came when there was none. By and
by there was an interval of two years, then again of three years,
without rumble or shock, without floods of fire or showers of
red-hot stones. Earth seemed to be subsiding into an era of peace.
But the fiends would not take the hint to be peaceable; they warred
as furiously as ever.

Stoutest in heart and tail of all the hostile tribes of that
scathed region was a wise fiend, the Devil. He had observed the
cessation in convulsions of Nature, and had begun to think out its
lesson. It was the custom of the fiends, so soon as the Dalles
plain became agreeably cool after an eruption, to meet there every
summer and have a grand tournament after their fashion. Then they
feasted riotously, and fought again until they were weary.

[Illustration: The Dalles of the Columbia

From a photograph by Weister Co., Portland, Ore.]

Although the eruptions of the Tacomas had ceased now for three
years, as each summer came round this festival was renewed. The
Devil had absented himself from the last two, and when, on the
third summer after his long retirement, he reappeared among his
race on the field of tourney, he became an object of respectful
attention. Every fiend knew that against his strength there was no
defence; he could slay so long as the fit was on. Yet the idea of
combined resistance to so dread a foe had never hatched itself in
any fiendish head; and besides, the Devil, though he was feared,
was not especially hated. He had never won the jealousy of his
peers by rising above them in morality. So now as he approached,
with brave tail vibrating proudly, all admired and many feared him.

The Devil drew near, and took the initiative in war, by making a
peace speech.

"Princes, potentates, and powers of these infernal realms," said
he, "the eruptions and earthquakes are ceasing. The elements are
settling into peacefulness. Can we not learn of them? Let us give