AMERICAN ABORIGINAL PIPES AND SMOKING CUSTOMS. 573 



without injiny to the block upon \vhich the blow is given other than 

 to cause spalls or pits to liy Irom each blow, Catlinite may, of course, 

 be sawed, a blade of stone answering the purpose satisfactorily; but 

 the work was, naturally, made much easier with iron tools. The thick- 

 est layer of the stone is about the middle of the vein, from which, while 

 onl}' li incihes thick at most, plates of this thickness may be obtained 

 of almost any size. In boring this stone a jasper or quartzite drill 

 point answers tjuite well. A wood shaft used with dry sand is 

 equally serviceable. If the sand used in drilling is moistened it pre- 

 vents the fresh sand falling to tlie bottom of the drill hole to replace 

 those crystals which have been ground into powder, while if the sand 

 be covered with water the powdered material floats to the top until 

 thoroughly saturated; but the binding by which the drill j)oiut is 

 held in position would be loosened if once wet, for the wooden point of 

 the shaft would swell from the same cause, and the woru-off material 

 would pack and retard work by forming a crust. If the sand or even 

 the shaft be damp the swelling of the wood and packing of the dust 

 is e(pially objectionable. Any stone which may be fractured so as to 

 have a sliarj) edge answers as a tool with which to scrape the pipe- 

 stone into shape; the harder the stone, of course, the longer its edge 

 would hold without resharpening. The easiest primitive process of 

 sawing would be to use a stone blade and dry sand until iron tools 

 came into use, though a blade of copper would answer almost equally 

 as well. To grind a smooth surface a gritty sandstone would be used — 

 a coarse one first and finer one later. Any water-washed stone with 

 sand would give a surface as smooth as that of any of the ancient 

 pipes, polishing appearing to be quite a modern treatment, and seldom 

 seen in catlinite pipes, unless made within the last fifty years. A 

 pebble smooths the surface according to the fineness of its texture. 

 Wood ashes gives a good surface and a hard bone is also excellent, 

 acting as a burnisher, for this pipe stone is susceptible of taking a 

 high i)olish, though those pipes of this material of purely Indian origin 

 are seldom if ever polished more than could be done with any ordinary 

 water-washed pebble. The difference in time requisite to make a pipe 

 from stone fresh from the quarry or from dry stone would, in the writer's 

 opinion, be too insignificant to be appreciable, and the most elaborate 

 pipe of the Siouan type, stone tools being used in working it, could 

 scarcely have required a day to complete. 



Primitive catlinite pipes, as stated, have been entirely without 

 ornamentation, though the more recent exanq)les are often most elab- 

 orately carved or have their surfaces inlaid Avith neat figures cut into 

 the stone and filled in with sheet lead, the whole surface being subse- 

 quently rubbed to a uniform smoothness, the contrast of the gray of 

 the lead and the Indian red of the stone producing a most pleasing 

 effect. The color of catlinite varies from dark red to light pink, and 

 specimens are in the U. S. National Museum collection of mottled pink 

 and white. Where the glazed surface is encountered, as it not unfre- 

 quently is, there is usually evidence of modern manipulation. Much 



