140 PIPE SCULPTURE. 



still maintained in their primeval integrity among the 

 Indians of the North West. 



Of the mound-builders Foster says : 



"The mound-builders were well aware of the narcotic proper- 

 ties of tobacco, a plant which indigenous to America, and 

 which since the discovery of the western continent has been 

 domesticated in every region of the earth where the soil and 

 climate are favorable to its cultivation. No habit at this day, 

 it may be said, is more universal or more difficult to eradi- 

 cate than that of smoking. With the mound-builder tobacco 

 was the greatest of luxuries; his solace in his hours of 

 relaxations, and the choicest offering he could dedicate to the 

 Great Spirit. Upon his pipe he lavished all the skill he 

 possessed in the lapidary's art. 



"From the red stone of the quarry 

 With his hand he broke a fragment 

 Moulded it into a pipe head 

 Shaped and fashioned it with figures." 



Many of these pipes are sculptured from the most obdurate 

 stones and display great delicacy of workmanship. The 

 features of animals are so truthfully cut that often there is no 

 difficulty in their identification, and even the plumage of 

 birds is delineated by curved or straight lines which show a 

 close adherence to nature. The bowl and stem piece 

 wrought from a single block, are as accurately drilled as they 

 could be at this day, by the lapidary's art. Both the 

 War pipe and Peace pipe are the most sacred and the most 

 highly valued of all the various kinds. 



" The calumet, or pipe of peace, ornamented with the war 



eagles quill, is a sacred 

 pipe, and never used on 

 any other occasion than 

 that of peace making, 

 when the chief brings it 

 into treaty, and unlbld- 



PEACE PIPE. * n tue man y bandages 



which are carefully 



kept around it, has it ready to be mutually smoked by the 

 chiefs, after the terms of the treaty are agreed upon, as the 

 means of solemnizing it ; which is done by passing the sacred 

 Btern to each chief, who draws one breath of smoke only 



