THE MOUNDS OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 549 
seems to have been universal among the American Indians. Charle- 
voix* and Latitaut both speak of the practice as being general, and 
their statements are contirmed by writers who have left us accounts of 
the rites and ceremonies as practiced by the different tribes. Thus 
Hariot, who wrote in the latter part of the sixteenth century, tells us 
that this plant was held in such esteem by the Indians of Virginia that 
they imagined that their gods were pleased when it was offered to 
them. It was for this reason that from time to time they built sacred 
fires, on which they burned this plant as a sacrifice. He also adds, that 
when they are surprised by a tempest they scatter it upen the water or 
throw it up inthe air; and they also put it in their new nets in order to 
insure success in fishing.t There was also something of a religious 
character in the practice common among all the Indian tribes of the 
United States of smoking the calumet as a preliminary to any treaty, or 
bargain, or agreement of any kind. According to Charlevoix the Indians 
claimed to have “received the calumet from the Panis, to whom it had 
been given by the sun, and they held it so sacred that there was prob- 
ably no instance of an agreement made in this manner that was ever 
violated. They believed that the Great Spirit would not leave such a 
breach of faith unpunished. - - - In trade, when an exchange has 
been agreed upon, a calumet is smoked in order to bind the bargain, 
and this makes it in somegmanner sacred. - - - There is no reason 
to doubt that the Indians, in making those smoke the calumet with 
whom they wish to trade or treat, intend to call upon the sun as a wit- 
ness and in some fashion as a guarantee of their treaties, for they never 
fail,” so the old chronicler tells us, “to blow the smoke toward that 
star.”§ 
*« They make to all these Spirits different sorts of offerings, which you may call, 
if you please, sacrifices. They throw into the Rivers and the lakes Petum, Tobacco, 
or birds that have had their throats cut, to render the God of the waters propitious 
tothem. In honor of the Sun, and sometimes also of the Inferior Spirits, they throw 
into the Fire Part of every Thing they use, and which they acknowledge to bold 
from them. It is sometimes out of Gratitude, but oftener through Interest :” Letters 
p. 252. 
t“Il est certain que le Tabac est en Amerique une herbe consacré a plusieurs ex- 
ercices, et a plusieurs usages de la Religion: ” Moeurs des Sauvages Ameriquains, 
vol. 11, p. 133, et seq., also vol. 1, p. 179. Schoolcraft, vol. vi, note to p. 109, says: 
“The Nicotiana was smoked and offered as incense to the Great Spirit by all the 
northern tribes.” 
tf Hakluyt, Voyages, vol. m1, p. 330: London, 1810. Compare Champlain, p. 208: 
Paris, 1632. Sagard, Voyage des Hurons, vol. 1, p. 151: Paris, 1865. Bartram, p. 
479. Relation en V année 1637, pp. 108-144. 
\ Charlevoix, Letters, pp. 133, et seq.: London, 1763. Bartram, in his MSS. quoted 
in Serpent Symbol, p. 69: New York, 1851, says of the Creeks: ‘They pay a kind of 
homage to the Sun, Moon, and Planets. - - - They seem particularly to reverence 
the Sun as the symbol of the Power and Beneficence of the Great Spirit, and as his min- 
ister. Thus at treaties they first puff or blow the smoke from the great pipe or calu- 
met towards that luminary; and they look up to it with great reverence and ear- 
nestness when they confirm their talks or speeches in council as a witness of their 
