594 



REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1897. 



letaiuecl a few seconds iu the lungs or stomach, produces a species of 

 stupefaction lasting- from live to ten minutes and then passing ott". The 

 calumet or pipe of peace is qui e unknown among these Indians."' 



Mr. W. H. Dall refers to the Kutchin Indians of Alaska, who "make 

 pretty pipe stems out of goose quills, wound about with colored porcu- 

 pine quills."'^ 



In the territory contiguous to the Yukon, Dall says "we would stop 

 every few minutes to let the Indians smoke. The operation takes less 

 than a minute. Their pijjes are so constructed as to hold but a very 

 small pinch of tobacco. A pinch of tobacco cut as fine as snuff is 

 inserted and two or three whiflfs are afforded by it. The smoke is 

 inhaled into the lungs, producing a momentary stuijefactiou, and the 

 operation is over."'' The bowls of the Yukon pipes are generally cast 

 from lead. Sometimes they are made of soft bone or even hard wood. 

 In smoking a few reindeer hairs pulled from his parka are rolled into a 

 little ball and placed in the bottom of the bowl to prevent the contents 

 being drawn into the stem. 



The Indian pipe Dall considers a copy of the Eskimo pipe, as the 

 latter were the first to obtain and use tobacco. Many of the tribes call 

 it by the Eskimo name. A fungus which grows on decayed birch trees, 

 or tinder manufactured from the down of the poplar rubbed up with 

 charcoal, is used with Hint and steel for obtaining a light. The 

 Chuck chees, Mr. Dall says, "use a pipe similar to those of the Eskimo, 

 but with a much larger and shorter stem. This stem is hollow and 

 filled with fine birch shavings. After smoking for some months these 

 shavings, impregnated with the oil of tobacco, are taken out through 

 an oijening in the lower j)art of the stem and smoked over." Mr. Dall 

 also informs the writer that this large pipe with the movable plate in 

 the stem is native to the Asiatic side of Bering Strait. In this stem 

 they also use willow and alder, which, when sufficiently saturated, are 

 smoked. Both willow and sumac are mixed with the tobacco to make 

 it go farther. 



Kordenskjold refers to the Chuckchee pipe, which is similar to that 

 from Point Barrow, which resemble those of the Tunguse. The tobacco, 

 he says, is often first chewed, then dried behind the ear, and kept in a 

 separate pouch suspended from the neck, to be afterwards smoked. 

 The pipes are so small, he remarks, like those of the Japanese, that 

 they may be smoked out with a few strong whiffs. The smoke is 

 swallowed. Even the women and children smoke and chew, and they 

 begin to do so at so tender an age that we have seen a child that could 

 indeed walk, but still sucked his mother, both chew tobacco and smoke.* 



Mr. W. H. Hooper refers to the Tuski " pipes of wood and ivory, either 

 divided along the middle into two parts for convenience of cleaning, or 



' The Indians of Cape Flattery, p. 27, Washington, 1870. 

 2 Alaska and its Resources, p. 82, IJostou, 1890. 

 3Ideni, p. HI. 

 ^The Voyage of the Vega, p. 116, Loudon, 1»81. 



