I 



AMERICAN ABORIGINAL PIPES AND SMOKING CUSTOMS. 575 



one source, and that near the mouth of the Teton Kiver on the upper 

 Missouri, at that date yet unvisited except by the Indians, "given them 

 by the Great Spirit for pipes, and forbidden to be used for anythinj*- else." 



Catlin also describes the manufacture of pipes, saying: "The Indians 

 shape out the bowls of these pipes from solid stone, which is not quite 

 as hard as marble, with nothing but a knife. The stone, -which is of a 

 cherry-red, admits of a beautiful polish, and the Indian makes the hole 

 in the bowl of the pipe by drilling into it a hard stick, shaped to the 

 desired size, with a quantity of sharp sand and water kept constantly 

 in the hole, subjecting him, therefore, to a very great labour and the 

 necessity of much patience." • 



He says : " The shafts or stems of these pipes are from 2 to 4 feet long, 

 sometimes round, but most generally liat, of an inch or two in breadth, 

 and wound half their length or more with braids of porcupine quills, 

 and often ornamented with the beak and tufts from the woodpecker's 

 head, with ermine skins and long red hair, dyed from white horse hair 

 or the white buffalo's tail. The stems of these pipes are carved in 

 many ingenious forms and in all cases they are perforated through the 

 center, quite staggering the enlightened world to guess how the holes 

 have been bored through them, until it is simply and briefly explained 

 that the stems are uniformly made of the stalk of the young ash, which 

 usually grows straight and has a small pith through the center, which 

 is usuall}' burned out with a hot wire, or a piece of hard wood by a 

 much slower process." - 



Catlin also refers to the tradition that quarries were on neutral ter- 

 ritory, where even enemies w^ould lay aside their arms and seek the 

 material and smoke in peace, until finally the Sioux broke the truce. 



Henry R. Schoolcraft says this stone is "fissile and easily cut or 

 ground, by trituration with harder substances, to any figure. It bears 

 a dull polish, which was produced by rubbing the surface with the 

 equisitum, or rush, which has a silicious, gritty surface." ^ 



Peter Kalm, early in the eighteenth century, referring to this sub- 

 ject, says: "The old tobacco pipes of the Indians are likewise made of 

 clay, or pot stone, or serpentine stone. The first sort are shaped like 

 our tobacco pipes, though much coarser and not so well made. The tube 

 is thick and short, hardly an inch long, but sometimes as long as a 

 finger. Their color comes nearest to that of our tobacco jnpes which 

 have been long used. Their tobacco pipes of pot stones are made of 

 the same stone as their kettles. Some of them are pretty well made, 

 though they had neither iron nor steel. But besides these kinds of 

 tobacco pipes, we find another sort of pipe, which are made with great 



'George Catlin, Letters and Notes on the Manners and Customs of the North 

 American Indians, I, p. 234, New York, 1844. 

 2 Idem, I, p. 235. 

 =* Henry R. Schoolcraft, Notes on the Iroc^uois, p. 237, Albany, 1847. 



