AMERICAN ABORIGINAL PIPES AND SMOKING CUSTOMS. 549 



Father White, in 1633, also refers to a function akin to tliis then 

 prevailing- in Maryland. "On an ai)pointed day," lie says, "there 

 assembled around a great lire all the men and women from many parts 

 of the country. A space being cleaned some one produces a large bag; 

 in the bag is a pipe and some powder which they call "potu." The 

 pipe is such as our countrymen use for smoking, but much larger. 

 Then the bag is carried around the tire, the boys and girls following 

 and singing in an agreeable voice alternately, "Taho," ''Taho." The 

 circle being ended the pipe is taken from the pouch with the powder. 

 The powder is distributed to each of those standing around and lighted 

 in the pipe, and eaeh one smoking it breathes over the several members 

 of his body and consecrates them." ' 



There is in these descriptions striking similarity to the calumet 

 dance later witnessed on the Mississippi by Marquette and other 

 French pioneers. 



This dancing- and clapping of hands appears analogous to the prac- 

 tices of the Natchez, who were said to "venerate the sun, which was 

 evidenced by offerings made to it at its rising and setting; " the offici- 

 ating functionary was probably a pipe chief or medicine man, such as 

 have been referred to as officers of many of the tribes as far north as 

 the Great Lakes. The pipe bag, pipe, and "potu" reminds one of 

 customs yet kept up among the Pueblos of the Southwest. Holm, in 

 his description of ISTew Sweden, says "almost all the Indians in the 

 northern [)art of America make use of a token of peace and friendship 

 with which they confirm all that their councils have determined upon, 

 whether it be war or X3eace, or any other important business."^ 



The i^adousses, according to Eaymbault and Jogues, in 1642, were 

 said to "cultivate the land after the manner of the Hurous and reaped 

 corn and petnn."^ 



These people were Siouan and appear to have lived in the vicinity of 

 Sault Ste. Marie, in Chippewa County, northern Michigan, and a knowl- 

 edge of them at this early period would suggest an acquaintance with 

 the country between Lake Erie and the southern part of Lake Michigan, 

 and a propable acquaintance with the waters of the Mississippi itself 

 years prior to Marquette's trip down the river in 1673. 



In 1553 the French made peace with the Iroquois at Isle Orleans, in 

 the country of the Hurons, near Quebec, and in the account given of 

 the proceedings by Lescarbot the Indians ai)pear to have followed a 

 practice recorded on many other occasions between the natives and 

 whites of dividing their speeches into parts, each part being accom- 

 I>anied by separate presents, as evidenced with the French by the pipe; 

 if with the English, the speeches were evidenced usually by the 

 wamjiuni belt; which practice continued with slight variation to the 

 period of the Revolution of the colonies. 



' Father Andrew D. White, A Relation of the Colony of the Lord Baron of Balti- 

 more, in Maryland, near Virginia, Forces Tracts, IV, No. 12, p. 24. 



2 Thomas Campanius Holm, A Short Description of the Province of New Sweden, 

 now called by the English, Pensylvania, p. 134, Philadelphia, 1834. 



^ Pierre Margry, Decouvertes et Etablissemeuts des Fran^ais, Les P. P. Charles 

 Eaymbault et Isaac Jogues, p. 47, Paris, 1875. 



