508 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1897. 



"The name 'calumet' pipes has been given," according to Dr. Rau, 

 "to large stone pipes, which were smoked with a stem, and are usually 

 fashioned in imitation of a bird, mammal, or amphibian, and sometimes 

 of the human ligure. They were thus called on account of their bulk, 

 which seemed to indicate their character as pipes of ceremony to be 

 used on solemn occasions. It was further thought that these pipes had 

 not been the property of individuals, but of communities, a view which 

 does not seem altogether correct, since some have been discovered in 

 burial mounds accompanying a single individual." ' 



This word has been so extensively used, first by the French and sub- 

 secpiently by the English, that, whatever its original meaning, it may 

 be said that at present it signifies merely a pipe. There were calumets 

 of war, of peace, of the dance, of confederacy, of the clan, of the cult, 

 and of the individual. To-day a red Siouan catlinite rectangular pipe 

 would more correctly represent a calumet than any other single type. 

 Pipes were of many different sizes and of different shapes with each 

 aftiliated tribe, the larger ones usually being employed when the inter- 

 ests of tribe or confederacy were involved, whereas the straight tube 

 appears to be the pi])e of the dance and solemn sacred functions. 



The calumet of peace, according to the French missionaries, was 

 accepted as a flag of truce by the Indians from Lake Michigan far down 

 the Mississippi III ver from IC 73 for many decades. According to Morgan, 

 "the Iroquois believed that tobacco was given to them as the means 

 of communication with the spiritual world. By burning it they could 

 send up their petitions with its ascending incense to the Great Spirit, 

 and render their acknowledgments acceptably for His blessings."^ 



At the sacrifice of the white dog among the Sioux the speaker "threw 

 leaves of tobacco into the fire from time to time, that its incense might 

 constantly ascend during the whole of the address."^ 



The pipe among the Indians of Canada, as elsewhere, was used also 

 upon ordinary social occasions, though there is reason to believe that 

 the pipe ceremony always had some special significance other than that 

 of a mere social acknowledgment or sedative. It brought luck or kept 

 away evil spirits. It was smoked to bring game, or keep ofl' disease, 

 and to attract or repel the mysterious powers of their mythology. 

 Among the Mandans, "if a woman passes between several men ot the 

 tribe who are smoking together, it is a bad omen. Should a woman 

 recline on the ground between men who are smoking, a piece of wood 

 is laid across her to serve as a communication between the men. When 

 any person had a i)ainful or diseased place, a man put his pipe upon it 

 and smoked. On such occasion he did not swallow the smoke, as is 

 the Indian custom, but he affirmed he could extract the disease by his 



' Charles Eau, The ArchiBological Collections of the United States National Museum, 

 p. 48. 



-Lewis 11. Morgan, League of the Irofxuois, j). 164, Rochester, 1851. 

 ^'Idem, p. 219. 



