AMERICAN ABORIGINAL PIPES AND SMOKING CUSTOMS. 565 



the pipe, and indicates a common origin, no matter how far back from 

 our time. The shape of pipe bowls and of stems also differ from the 

 shape of the European pipe. He thinks the use of tobacco was not 

 introduced into Europe by the discovery of America.' 



Among- the Southern Indians Pickett speaks of the " council house 

 where the inhabitants were accustomed to take the black drink. When 

 the drinking began tobacco contained in poaches nmde from the skins 

 of the wild-cat, otter, bear, or rattlesnake was distributed among the 

 assembly, together with pipes, and a general smoking began. The 

 king began first with a few whifts from the great pipe, blowing it cere- 

 moniously first toward the sun, next toward the four cardinal i)oiuts, 

 and then toward the white audieuce ; theu the attendants passed the 

 pipe to others of distinction."^ 



We see here a reference to the general aboriginal belief in the six 

 quarters of the universe, the above and the below, in addition to the 

 four cardinal points, or the four winds, all being equally important, 

 according to })rimitive ideas. William Bartram refers to smoking with 

 a chief a pipe, the " stem of which was about 4 feet long and was 

 sheathed in a beautiful speckled snake's skin, adorned with feathers 

 and strings of wampum.''^ 



An early reference to the calumet custom is the quaint description 

 given by John Filson in his History of Kentucky, as translated by 

 Parrand, of a meeting held at Fort St. Vincent, April 15, 1784, between 

 Thomas J. Dalton, who said to the Piankashaws, "The white men — 

 Americans, French, Spanish, Dutch, and English — smoke the pipe of 

 peace; the tomahawk is buried, and we are now all friends. In eighteen 

 days I quit the Wabash to see my big chief at the falls of the Ohio. 

 Here is tobacco that I give you; smoke it, and consider what you will 

 do." Then he gave a collar of wampum, blue and white, and said, 

 "Piankashaw, talk; talk to the Americans." The chief of the Piank- 

 ashaws said : " We accept your wampum belt. We accepted the toma- 

 hawk of the English. We smoke, as brothers, the peace pipe which we 

 give you. See, O father, the pix)e which gives us joy. Smoke it your- 

 self Our warriors are pleased that we give it to you. We smoke 

 your pii)e." He closes his oration in a somewhat startling manner, 

 however, saying, " We ask of you a little taste of your milk, that our 

 warriors may see it comes from your breast. We are born and raised in 

 the woods and can never learn to make rum. God made the white man 

 master of the world. They make everything; and all of us love rum."^ 



In 1789 Georg Ileinrich Loskiel speaks of the peace pipe, or calumet, 

 as it was called by the French, as having a head of red marble, the red 

 of which is a sign of blood, which they would not send as a peace 

 emblem, but cover it over with white clay or chalk. This pipe was 6 or 



'Memoirs Philosophiqnes, p. 59. 

 -A History of Alabama, I, p. 102, quoting Bartram. 



^William Bartram, Travels tlirongli North and South Carolina, p. 319, Dublin, 1793. 

 'Histoire <le Kentueke, p. 101, translated Irom English of John Eilson, by M. 

 Parrand, Paris, 1785. 



