THE DRINKING REED. 4H5 



substance.&quot; 1 Among the Xarrinyert of Australia, when young men are 

 to be initiated into the rank of warriors, during the ceremonies &quot;they 

 are allowed to drink water, but only by sucking it up through a reed. 1 2 

 Admiral von Wrangel says of the Tcliuktchi of Siberia: &quot;They suck 

 their broth through a small tube of reindeer bone,&quot; which &quot; each indi 

 vidual carries about with him.&quot; :t Padre Sahagun says that the human 

 victim whom the Aztecs offered up in sacrifice was not allowed to 

 touch water with his lips, but had to suck it through a reed. 4 



The Mexicans had a forty-days fast in memory of one of their sacred 

 persons who was tempted forty days on a mountain. He drinks through 

 a reed. He is called the Morning Star.&quot; 5 The Mexicans, according to 

 Fray Diego Duran, placed before the statues of their dead bowls of 

 &quot;vino,&quot; with &quot;rosas,&quot; tobacco (this seems to be the proper translation 

 of the word &quot;hiimazos,&quot; smokes), and a reed called the &quot;drinker of the 

 sun,&quot; through which the spirit could imbibe.&quot; 



The suction pipes of steatite, 1 mentioned by Schoolcraft, as found in 

 the mounds, may have been the equivalents of our drinking reeds, and 

 made of steatite to be the more readily preserved in the ritual of which 

 they formed part. 



Copper cylinders 1^ inches long and f of an inch in diameter were found 

 in the mounds of the Mississippi Valley by Sojiier and Davis. The 

 conjecture that they had been used &quot;for ornaments&quot; does not seem 

 warranted. 7 



We should not forget that there was a semideilication of the reed 

 itself by the Aztec in their assignment of it to a place in their calendar 

 under the name of &quot;acatl.&quot; a 



Mrs. Ellen Eussell Emerson speaks of the custom the warriors of the 

 northern tribes had which suggests that she had heard of the drinking 

 reed without exactly understanding what it meant. She says that warriors 

 carry bowls of birch bark &quot;from one side of which the warrior drinks 

 in going to battle from the other, on his return. These bowls are not 

 carried home, but left on the prairie, or suspended from trees within a 

 day s journey of his village.&quot; 9 



Among the Brahmans practices based upon somewhat similar ideas 

 are to be found: every morning, upon rising, &quot;ils prennent troisfois de 

 1 ean dans la main, & en jetteut trois fois dans lenr bonehe, eYitant d y 

 toucher avec la main. 1 &quot; 



1 Forster, Voyage Round the World, vol. 1. p. 435. 

 * Smyth, Aborigines of Victoria, vol. 1. p. 66. 



3 English edition, New York. 1842, p. 271. 



4 Kingsborougli, vol. 6, p. 100. 



MJodfrey lli^gms. Anacalypsis, vol. 2. book 1. cap. 4, sec. 9, p. 31. 



\&quot; iionlu delaute nil canutogrande y queso [grueso!] para con quo bebiese: este cauutu llamaban 

 &quot; bcbcdero del Sol.&quot; Diego Uuran, vol. 1. cap. 38. p. 386. 



Smithsonian Contributions*, vol. 1. p. 1JH. 



&quot;The reed, which is the propel meaning of the word &quot;acittl. is the hieroglyphic of the element 

 water. Veytia, quoted by Thomas, iu 3rd Ann. Kep.. Bn. Eth.. 1X81-1K82. p. 42 et seq. 



Indian Myths, Boston, 1884. p. 260. 



&quot;Pieart, Ceremonies et Coutum.es Relipieuses de tons les IVuples du Monde. Amsterdam. 1736, 

 vol. 6. part 2. p. 103 



