436 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1897. 



bowl that it leaves no i^urchase or room to attach a stem by merely 

 foreiiifi' it in tight. This suggests that stems were attached by means 

 of rawhide strips Avra])ped around bowl and stem while wet and allowed 

 to dry, whereby the stem and bowl would be held together in a manner 

 as perfect as possible. 



There appears scarcely a limit to the variations of this type, which 

 was shaped chiefly to suit individual tastes, and was of a form handy 

 to carry. One coming under the writer's notice was made from a pistol 

 cartridge, having a bird-bone stem, held in position by rawhide tight- 

 ened in the manner above suggested. 



It would require a book to itself to attempt thoroughly to treat the 

 subject of pipestems — their decoration, and the material from which 

 they are made, which would include stone, bone, horn, ivory, wood, 

 and quills. Some of the pipes were apparently smoked without stems 

 separate from the pipes, notably the curved base pipes of the mounds, 

 though even they may jiossibly have had quill stems attached. 



Tubular pipes were generally smoked by means of bone, wood, or even 

 stone stems, inserted in the smaller end of the tube, as is indicated by 

 its interior enlargement. In California, and among the Pueblos and 

 cliif dwellers, these mouthpieces were held in position by means of 

 bitumen or gum, though there is little direct evidence as to the method 

 employed in the eastern portion of the United States to hold the tubu 

 lar i)ipestems in place; similarity in shape of tube would suggest like 

 methods. Pij)estems of wood — round, flat, curved, bent, and carved, 

 long and short — are common from the Eocky Mountains to the Atlantic 

 Ocean, the Indian being governed in the character of stem largely by 

 the supply of material in the territory to whicli he had access either 

 personally or through trade. Reeds and jointed roots would naturally 

 be emi)loyed where available; before the arrival of the whites with 

 their metal, the proposed stem would have to be split thrcmgh longi- 

 tudinally; the joints on the inside being removed, the split pieces could 

 be glued together again or bound with bark or hide. The stems, if of 

 wood, would be split in the same manner and each of the split pieces, 

 after having a narrow channel cut along its entire length, could be 

 rejoined, when the channels would form a tubular opening from end to 

 end of the stem, allowing free passage to the smoke. These split pieces, 

 when not refitting satisfactorily, often had strips of hide or bark glued 

 to the crack, when they would be bound in the usual manner. 



Judging from such descriptions of pipestems as have been ])reserved 

 to us through various publications, it will be observed that from the 

 time of the earliest French and English contact with the natives, pipe- 

 stems have been highly ornamented and often decorated with bright 

 colors, feathers, fur, and dyed hair, and more recently with bright 

 flannel of various shades and large-headed brass or silver nails driven 

 into smooth surfaces in rows or scrolls. The ornamentation of the stems 

 of ceremonial pipes appears to have hadgreat significance, for not only 



