AMERICAN ABORIGINAL PIPES AND SMOKING CUSTOMS. 559 



" First. They take a pipe much larger and higgler than the common 

 tobacco pipe, expressly made for the j)urpose, with which all towns are 

 provided. 



Second. This pipe they always fill before the fiice of the strangers, 

 and light it. 



Third. The chief man of the Indians takes two or three whiffs and 

 hands it to the chief of the strangers. 



Fourth. If the strangers refuse it, it is a sign of war. 



Fifth. It it be peace, the stranger takes a whiff or two and hands it to 

 the next great man of the town they come to visit; he after taking two or 

 three whiffs gives it back to the next of the strangers, and so on alter- 

 natel}' until they have passed it to all i)ersous of note on each side, and 

 then the ceremony is ended." ' 



In i!^ew York the calumet was used at a council in Albany, May 30, 

 1723.2 



Cadwalader Golden, in 1724, speaks of the calumet being used by the 

 Five j!!^ations, and says it was used by the Indians before they knew any- 

 thing of the Christians, and is at a loss to know how they were pierced 

 aiul shai)ed before they had the use of iron.^ 



Father J. F. Lafltau, whose great work on the American Indians was 

 published in 1724, refers to the Sioux having endeavored to fool a 

 French oflicer by presenting him a dozen calumets. One of his Indians 

 to whom he showed them called his attention to the fact that one of 

 them was not twisted with hair, as the others were, and had besides 

 engraved on its handle a snake, and assured him it was a sign of 

 treason. But, he says, " they tell me it is a greater sign of war when 

 they paint the handle red between the hairs.*' The Europeans, he says, 

 "up to the present time, who have traded with the Illinois and the 

 other people of Louisiana have used the caluuiet and have participated 

 in all its ceremonies iu order to obtain liberty to pass in peace in their 

 commercial transactions." He " sees in the custom remains of paganism 

 and a marked idolatry," and thinks "it should be abolished entirely 

 among the Europeans and nations who have embraced or who may want 

 to embrace Christianity." * 



That the sanctity of the calumet was not always respected there can 

 be no doubt, even along the Mississippi, where instances have been cited 

 of refusal even to communicate with those carrying a calumet. Latitau 

 says that if in council between ambassadors and the Indians concern- 

 ing the making of peace the council decides ui)on war it is a great mis- 

 fortune for the ambassadors, for the law in that case only protects them 

 as long as the matter is iu abeyance, but being negatived they knock 

 them in the head where they are, though they often take honorable 

 leave of them and then send and have them assassinated a few days 



'History of Vuginia, I, p. 157, Petersburg and Richmond, 1722. 



2 Documents relating to the Colonial History of New York, V, p. 695. 



3 The History of the; Five Nations, p. 55, note, London. 1721. 



■•J. F. Lafitau, Moeurs des 8auvages Ameriqains, II, p. 335, Paris, 1724. 



