AMERICAN ABORIGINAL PIPER AND SMOKING CUSTOMS. 513 



beak. The panther, the bear, the wolf, the beaver, the otter, the 

 S(iairrel, the racooou, the hawk, the heron, crow, swaUow, buzzard, 

 l)aroquet, toucan, and other indigenous and southern birds, the turth', 

 the frog, toad, rattlesnake, etc., are recognized at first glance. But 

 the most interesting and valuable in the list are a number of sculi)tured 

 heads, no doubt faithfully representing the predominant physical fea- 

 tures of the ancient people by whom they were made."' 



These views have been generally accepted since the publication of 

 this great monograph, which represented tlie most extensive excavation 

 undertaken by any archa-ologist up to its date, thougli other and more 

 extensive investigations have since been made in these and in other 

 mounds. The accepted theory has for a long period been that the 

 American Indian lavished his utmost skill upon the construction and 

 decoration of his pipe — those of stone as well as those of pottery. Of 

 the latter. Sir John Lubbocli has remarked that, "Among the most 

 characteristic specimens of ancient American pottery are the pipes. 

 Many are spirited representations of animals, such as the beaver, 

 otter, etc."'^ 



It does not appear to have been considered remarkable that the carv- 

 ing of pipes with such great skill should be practically the only exam- 

 ple of American Indian art; and it may be questioned if the small size 

 of the pipes, thereby enabling them to be carried by their owners, suffi- 

 ciently explains why pipes alone show this skill, fine carving being 

 almost, if not entirely, unknown in other aboriginal stone objects from 

 the area where these pipes are most often found. 



It may with pertinence be asked why do we not find in the mounds 

 other images of stone finished with the skill of the mound pipe if 

 they are of Indian origin? The religious or superstitious feeling of the 

 seventeenth century would draw the line at idol making, whereas pipe 

 manufacture would be a legitimate occupation. That the people of the 

 minind-pipe region possessed idols is a historic fact, for Dablon, the 

 Jesuit missionary (about 1G70-1672) at Fox Kiver, found an Indian idol 

 on the bank similar to that which Dollier and Gallince found at Detroit, 

 being merely a rock bearing some resemblance to a man and hideously 

 painted ■ which they threw into the river; the rude ])OSsession of those 

 people of whom Le Jeune said, in 1(533, " Unhappy infidels, who spend 

 their life in smoke and their eternity in flames."^ 



Mound pi])es vary greatly in their finish, yet they are of a distinct type' 

 from all other pipes, many of their bowl cavities being small in propor- 

 tion to their exterior diameter; yet there are exceptions to the rule. 

 The specimens u\ the Smithsonian collection vary in length from li to 5 

 inches, in height from 1 to 2 inches, and in width from 1^ to 1.^ inches. 



' Sqnier and Davis, Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley, p. 152, 1848. 

 *Sir .John Liibboc'k, Prehistoric Times, p. 258, New York, 1872. 

 '' Francis Parkman, The .Jesuits in America, p. 3.5, Boston, 1895. 

 ••Idem, p. 36, Boston, 1895, 

 NAT MUS 97 ^^33 



