AMERICAN ABORIGINAL PIPES AND SMOKING CUSTOMS. 557 



of peace is evidenced by P>ernjird de la Harpe, who records the break- 

 ing of the arm of Charles, the Canadian, in January, 1703, by a party 

 of Indians who had presented the cahiinet, and the same night assassi- 

 nated his (iompanions.' The singing of the song of the calumet was 

 not conrtued to the natives by any means, for in this they were imi- 

 tated by the French^ on more than one occasion. 



Du Pratz, in his history of Louisiana, illustrates the manner of dan- 

 cing the calumet on the Lower Mississii)pi in 1719 by the Tchitima- 

 chas (fig. 173). 



He says: "1 had an opportunity during this trip to satisfy my curi- 

 osity on the subject of the calumet 

 of peace, of which I had heard so 

 much from the old Frencii inhabit- 

 ants. There having been war with 

 the Tchitimachas (a distinct linguis- 

 tic stock located west of the mouth 

 of the Mississippi), they asked for 

 peace. A delegation arrived sing- 

 ing the calumet song, and with the 

 calumet moving in rhythm they ad- 

 vanced, keeping time to the sound 

 of the rattle."-^ 



"The calumet," he says, "is the 

 tube of a pipe at least 1^ feet long, 

 covered with a skin composed of 

 the head and neck of a wood duck, 

 of which the uumy-colored plu- 

 mage is exceedingly attractive, and 

 at the end of the tube there is a 

 pipe. At the same end there is 

 fixed a kind of wing of the white 

 eagle, in shape of a quarter circle, 

 and at the end of each feather it is 

 encircled by a hoop dyed a bright 

 red color, while the other end has 

 none."-' After a brief descrii)tion 

 of the i^reliminaries, he says: 

 "The speaker stood up while the assistant filled the pipe, and after 

 smoking it, he dried it, and handed it to Mr. Bienville to do the same; 

 then we all smoked it, after which the old man took the calumet and 

 gave it to Mr. Bienville to keep."* On these occasions, he says, "they 

 are dressed in their best, and never fail to hold in their hand a chichi- 

 cois" (rattle), "which they also move in rhythm."^ "The war calumet," 

 he says, "is a pipe of the same material and shape excepting the color 

 of the feathers, which are those of an aquatic bird, the flamingo. The 



Fig. 173. 



CALUMET DANCE. 



After Du Pratz. 



Histoire .ie la Louisiane, \<. 10.i. 



' B. F. French, Historical Collections of Louisiana, p. 30, New York, 1851. 

 'John Gilmary Shea, Early Voyages Up and Down the Mississippi, Saiute Cosme's 

 Voyage on the Mississippi, p. 72, Albany, 1861. 

 ^Le Page Du Pratz, Histoire de la Louisiane, I, p. 108, Paris, 1758. 

 ^Idem, p. 105. 



