504 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1897. 



instrument on the order of tlie flageolet, called by the lOnolish "chalmy." 

 This instrument in turn obtains its name from the same Xorman word, 

 sig'uifjang a reed. 



Tlie long voyages from Europe to America during the sixteenth and 

 seventeenth centuries must have been mcmotonous in the extreme until 

 the navigators fell in with the land, and even as early as the time of 

 Cicero he informs ns there was not a vessel where music was not 

 em[)loyed on shi^jboard to relieve the monotony of the voyage.' 



Instrumental music was as astonishing to the natives as was the noise 

 of the guns, and must have afforded to these children of the forest 

 renuirkable entertainment as well as great astonishment. Nothing is 

 more natural than that the original tubular pipe should have been 

 gi\en the flaring mouth of the metal horn of the French, which, as a 

 pipe, would be further improved by imitating the curve of the horn. 



A sort of flageolet referred to by Sir John Ilawkiiis was a musical 

 instrument of which, in an account of Queen Elizabeth's annual 

 expense published by Peck in his Disiderata Curiosa, he speaks of as 

 being " filled with air blown into them by the mouth." He alludes to 

 several of them by name, especially the chalmy, i. e., the Chalujneau.- 



The illustration given by Hawkins is that of a straight instrument, 

 similar to a flageolet and having a flaring mouth like fig. 112. 



According to McCulloh,the calumet "which is a Norman word signify- 

 ing a reed, is a tobacco pipe whose stem is about 4 feet in length, some- 

 times round and at other times flat. It is painted and adorned witli 

 hair, porcupine quills, dyed of various colors, and the most beautiful 

 feathers that can be procured. The bowl of the pipe is most fre- 

 quently red marble, though some tribes only admit of white stone, 

 and if it be j^resented to them either of black or red color will have it 

 whitened before they smoke it. It is considered a sacred or consecrated 

 object, and on this account is never suffered to touch the ground, 

 being laid upon two forked sticks, stuck upright in the earth for that 

 purpose." ^ 



CALUMET AND WAMPUM. 



The illustration here given (fig. 123) shows the calumet with all of 

 its ornamentation as used by the Omahas. To dance the calumet "is 

 to make a sacred kinshi]), which is done after serious consultation in 

 which the party selected is sometimes advised againstdoing so, because 

 the i)arty to be danced for is either not worthy of it or he may himself 

 refuse to be adopted in the dance. If all is agreeable, all parties repair 

 to a particular place, where the pijies are i)laced on a forked support. 

 Instead of the pipe bowl there is the head of a green-necked duck; 

 on the ui)i)er side of the stem are yellowish feathers of the great owl ; 



' J. B. De La Bord aud P. J. Roiissieu, Essai sur La Musique, II, p. 211, Paris, 

 1780. 



-Sir .John Hawkins, A General History of Music, II, p. 450, London, 1776. 

 ' J. H. McCulloh, Researches, p. 144, Baltimore, 1829. 



