AMERICAN ABORIGINAL PIPES AND SMOKING CUSTOMS. 505 



next long- win,g- feathers of tlie great war eagle, split and stuck on lon- 

 gitudinally in three places, as on an arrow shaft. At the end of these is 

 some horsehair which has been reddened. 

 It is wrapped on the stem and tied on with 

 sinew and over that is fastened some of 

 the fur of the white rabbit; near one end 

 is the head of a woodcock * * * the nose 

 turned toward the mouthpiece. Ou the 

 ])ipe the eagle feathers are white, being 

 those of a male eagle, and the pipe stem 

 is dark blue." ' 



As seen in tig. 124, "When the pipes are 

 rested against the forked stick the head 

 of the duck is placed next the ground. 

 The sticks are colored with Indian red. 

 The next morning before sunrise some of 

 the visitors sing for the people to arise and 

 assemble. When they begin to sing, the 

 pipes are taken from their support and are 

 not returned until the singing is concluded. 

 They sing again after breakfast, a third 

 time in the afternoon, and once more at 

 night. This generally continues for two 

 days, during which time the visitors are 

 feasted. Sometimes they continue the feast 

 for three days. The day after the feast 

 they give and receive presents. The next 

 day a servant of one of the iDrincipal visi- 

 tors is selected to dance, one who is skillful 

 in imitating the movements of the war 

 eagle. The x)erson danced for is thereafter 

 adopted as a member of the family of the 

 other. The Ponkas are not fully acquaint- 

 ed with the calumet dance. They use but 

 one pipe;, but the Omahas always have two 

 pil)es."'^ This description of the dance and 

 of the pipe and the decorations of the pipe 

 are similar to the earliest accounts we 

 have. The stem of a pipe brought from the 

 Lower Niger, Africa, by Captain Burton, which is in the collection of 

 the British Museum, with its carefully attached tufts, resembles stems 

 employed by American Indians.^ 



After .1. Owen Drn'sey, 'I'llinI Annual lleimrt of 

 the liureau u£ Ethnok^y, ji. ■-'::. 



' J. Owen Dorsey, Oinalia Sociology, Third Annual Report of the P.ureau ol' Ethnol- 

 ogy, p. 277, fig. 20. 

 2 Idem, ]. p. 276-282. 

 "R. T. Pritchett, Ye Smoldaua, p. 33, 1890. 



