t the men in their canoes, and followed the
tracks. After walking two hours, they came to an Indian village. The
Frenchmen came near enough to hear the Indians talking. The Indians
did not see them.

Jo-li-et and Mar-quette did not know whether the Indians would kill
them or not. They said a short prayer. Then they stood out in full
view, and gave a loud shout.

The Indians came out of their tents like bees. They stared at the
strangers. Then four Indians came toward them. These Indians carried a
peace pipe. They held this up toward the sun. This meant that they
were friendly.

The Indians now offered the peace pipe to the French-men. The
French-men took it, and smoked with the Indians. This was the Indian
way of saying, "We are friends."

[Illustration: Marquette and Joliet]

Mar-quette asked the Indians what tribe they belonged to.
They told him that they were of the tribe called the Il-li-nois.

They took Jo-li-et and Mar-quette into their village. They came to the
door of a large wig-wam. A chief stood in the door. He shaded his eyes
with both hands, as if the sun were shining in his face. Then he made
a little speech.

He said, "French-men, how bright the sun shines when you come to see
us! We are all waiting for you. You shall now come into our houses
in peace."

The Il-li-nois Indians made a feast for their new friends. First they
had mush of corn meal, with fat meat in it. One of the Indians fed the
Frenchmen as though they were babies. He put mush into their mouths
with a large spoon.

Then came some fish. The Indian that fed the vis-it-ors picked out the
bones with his fingers. Then he put the pieces of fish into their
mouths. After they had some roasted dog. The French-men did not like
this. Last, they were fed with buf-fa-lo meat.

The next morning six hundred Indians went to the canoes to tell the
Frenchmen good-by. They gave Mar-quette a young Indian slave. And they
gave him a peace pipe to carry with him.

INDIAN PICTURES.

When Mar-quette and his men left the Il-li-nois, they went on down the
river. The friendly Il-li-nois had told them that the Indians they
would see were bad, and that they would kill any one who came into
their country.

The Frenchmen had heard before this that there were demons and
monsters in the river. One day they saw some high rocks with pictures
painted on them. The ugly pictures made them think of these monsters.
They were painted in red, black, and