5G8 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1897. 



green stone.' They smoked towards the invoked object and placed gifts 

 of killickinnick upon it.- They presented the pipe with the mouthpiece 

 toward the power invoked. The Omaha and Ponka used to hold the 

 pipe in six directions while smoking toward the four winds, the ground, 

 and the ujiper world.' 



Certain persons have care of each the peace and the war pipe among 

 the Omaha, and there are others who are designated to light the pipe. 

 Certain words must at times be used in taking out the i)ipes; if not 

 followed, misfortune overtakes the delinquent. If the proper parties 

 are not jiresent ceremonies must often be delayed. To learn the laws 

 of the pipe takes four days."* 



The importance of clie presentation of the pipe with all due ceremony 

 extends among the Omaha to the bufilalo or other game, according to 

 Stephen H. Long, who says: "The party having approached as near 

 the herd as they suppose the animals will permit without taking alarm, 

 they halt to give the pipe bearer an opportunity to perform the cere- 

 mony of smoking, which is considered necessary to their success. He 

 lights his pipe and remains a short time with his head inclined. The 

 stem of the pipe extends toward the herd. He then smokes and pufl's 

 the smoke toward the bisons, toward the heavens, the earth, and finally 

 to the cardinal points successively. These last are designated by the 

 terms sunrise, sunset, cold country, and warm country, or they desig- 

 nate them collectively by the phrase of the four winds, Ta-da-sa-ga- 

 to-ba."^ 



The pipes are cut, he says, from the red, indurated clay which 

 they procure from the pipestone branch of the Sioux Eiver, the mass 

 being readily cut with a common knife.'' 



One of the most minute descriptions of the calumet dance which the 

 writer is conversant with, is that of Major Stephen H. Long, referring 

 to the Omaha who belong to the great Siouau family. He says: 



The calumet dance, Nin-ne-na-ba-wong, is a favoiiie dance. It is usually ])er- 

 foriiH'cl by two individuals, in honor and in the presence of one of their own or of a 

 neighborinj^ nation in the expectation of receivingpresents in return. A person who 

 intends to perform this dance sends a messenger, bearing a small sl^in containing 

 tobacco to fill a pipe, to the individual whom he intends to honor. If the proposed 

 compliment should not l)e acceptable, it is refused in tht^ most courteous manner, 

 ■with excuses based upon poverty and with many thauks for the honor intended. If, 

 on the contrary, the tobacco should be accepted .and smoked, the act shows that the 

 visit also will be acceptable, and a time is fixed for the performance of the ceremony. 

 At the appointed time the dancers, with two selected companions, repair to the place 

 of their destination and are invited into the lodge of the person addressed. After a 

 short time a calumet is placed upon a forked support, which is driven into the soil 



' Eleventh Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, p. 375. 



2Idem, p. 373. 



^J. Owen Dorsey, Omaha Sociology, Third Annual IJejiort of tlie l>ureau of 

 Ethnology, p. 221. 



'Stephen H. Long, Expedition from Pittsburgh to the Rocky Mountains, I, p. 208, 

 Philadelphia, 1823. 



f- Idem, I, p. 332. 



