AMERICAN ABORIGINAL PIPES AND SMOKING CUSTOMS. 485 



an otter. On the bear's rigbt, also climbing the bowl, is a beaver at 

 full length, while oi)posite the beaver is a terrapin, or turtle, also 

 clasping the bowl and trying to climb to the top. The beaver's head 

 is even with that of the bear, as were presumably the heads of the otter 

 and terrai)in. which, unfortunately, have been broken oft" at the neck. 

 The shell of the turtle, the scales of his legs, and his claws, and the 

 hair and limbs of the other animals are carved with the minutest regard 

 to detail. The etching of semicir- 

 cles, circles, conventional branches 

 of plants, dots, straight and curved 

 lines, 'all bear evidence of foreign 

 influences and metal tools, every de- 

 tail being executed Mith such skill 

 and taste as to leave no doubt of its 

 being the work of an artist. Such 

 care in the manufacture of a stone 

 pipe is proof of its being intended 

 for a person of importance, or a pres- 

 ent on some occasion of unusual 

 significance between the French or 

 p]nglish and the Indians. The ani- 

 mals here represented are all totems 

 of the Iroquois, and are said also to 

 be those of all the tribes from Lou- 

 isiana to Montreal.* 



This pipe is said to have been 

 found on the bank of the St. John 

 lliver, in northeastern Maine. 

 There are in the Bragge collection 

 pipes apparently of this type from 

 the area where these are referred to 

 as being found : One, from Canada, 

 having upon it two beavers and 

 two smaller animals; one, from be- 

 low Quebec, with two dogs aiid two 

 bears upon it; one, from an island 

 below Qnebec, having on it an eagle, 

 monkey, bear, cat,°and a dog; another, two bears, a fox, and a bird, 

 all apparently of this Micmac type. 



A gTaceful little pipe of catlinite (fig. 107) collected by Mr. J. Peters, 

 from Kentucky, If inches high, upon the stem of M'hich the figures 

 1717 are rudely incised, is quite an artistic affair. Whether these 

 figures indicate an actual date, however, is a matter impossible to 

 determine. Tlie bowl is badly broken, though the base is whole and 

 consists of a crouching animal, and has a single hole for the string. 



Fig. 106. 



TOTEMIC MICMAC PIPE. 



St. John River, Maiue. 



n of Andrew E. PougKiss, New York Cilv. 



'Lewis H. Morgan, League of the Irotiuois, p. 79, Rochester, 1851. 



