558 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1897. 



head of the bird is skinned, the feathers being of a whitish gray, which 

 being dyed, only makes a light red, the hoop and tufts being black. 

 The stem of the pipe is covered with the skin of a carancro" (carrion 

 crow?), "as black as a blackbird and as big as a turkey.'" 



There is difficulty in defining the word "carancro," unless it be a 

 corruption of the English "carrion crow," though probably either the 

 turkey, vulture, or black vulture is intended, as both are common in 

 Louisiana; both are black and botli are about the size of a turkey. 



Charlevoix, in 1721, among the Onondagas, says there is perhaps no 

 example of an agreement entered into after smoking the calumet ever 

 being violated, but asserts that if it be presented in the midst of a 

 battle by an enemy it may be refused. He describes the war calumet 

 as being all red, or red on one side, and says that from the manner in 

 which the feathers are arranged they know at sight the nation to 

 which it belongs.^ 



Of wampum Charlevoix says that these shells were of two colors, 

 from which the belts were made, and that the red ones were frequently 

 sent when war was intended; and in reference to the red and white 

 colors signifying war or peace, suggests that they have taken the hint 

 from the colors of the English and the French. " It is even said," he 

 remarks, "that we ourselves first introduced it amongst them."^ 



This author's explanation of the calumet differs somewhat from that 

 generally suggested. He says : " The calumet is no less sacred among 

 the Indians than the collar of wampum; it is even, if we believe them, 

 of divine origin, for they maintain it was a i)resent made them by the 

 sun. It is more in use among the southern and western nations than 

 among the eastern and northern, and is more frequently employed for 

 peace than for war. Calumet is a iJTorman word, being a corru])tion of 

 chaliorveau, and the calumet of the Indian is properly the stalk of the 

 pipe, but under that name is understood the whole pipe as well as the 

 stalk. The stalk is very long in calumets of ceremony, and the pipe 

 has the shape of our old hammers for arms. It is commonly made of 

 a sort of reddish marble, very easy to work, and found in the country 

 of the Aiouez [lowas, Sioux], beyond the Mississippi. The stalk is of 

 a light wood, i)ainted with different colors, and adorned with the heads, 

 tails, and feathers of the most beautiful birds, which in all probability 

 is only intended for ornament." ^ 



That calumet customs were similar throughout a great part of the 

 north and west there is abundant evidence, and the i)ractice pro\ailed 

 even as far south as Virginia. Robert Beverly, in 1722, enumerates 

 five things which were always observed in receiving strangers, in 

 order to determine whether they came on a peaceful or on a warlike 

 mission. 



' Le Page Du Pratz, Histoire de la Lonisiane, I, p. 118, Paris, 1758. 



2 Peter Francis Xavier de Charlevoix, Journal of a Voyage to North America, I, p. 

 321, London, 1761. 



3 Idem, p. 320. 



