142 GOOSE-QUILL STEMS. 



valued and readily purchased. The effect of the Circassian 

 tobacco on the lungs is extremely bad, and among those 

 tribes who use it many die from asthma and congestion of 

 the lungs. This is principally due to the saltpetre with which 

 it is impregnated. The Indian pipe is copied from the 

 Eskimo, as the latter were the first to obtain and use tobacco. 

 Many of the tribes call it by the Eskimo name. 



The Kutchin and Eastern Finneh were modeled after the 

 clay pipes of the Hudson Bay Company, but they also carve 

 very pretty ones out of birch knots and the root of the wild 

 rose-bush. The Chukchees use a pipe similar to those of the 

 Eskimo, but with a much larger and shorter stem. This 

 stem is hollow, and is filled with fine birch shavings. After 

 smoking for some months these shavings impregnated with 

 the oil of tobacco, are taken out through an opening in the 

 lower part of the stem and smoked over. The Hudson 

 Baymen make passable pipe-stems by taking a straight-grained 

 piece of willow or spruce without knots, and cutting through 

 the outer layers of bark and wood. This stick is heated in 

 the ashes and by twisting the end in contrary directions the 

 heart-wood may be gradually drawn out, leaving a hollow 

 tube. 



The Kutchin make pretty pipe-sterns out of goose quills 

 wound about with porcupine-quills. It is the custom in the 

 English forts to make every Indian who comes to trade, a 

 present of a clay pipe filled with tobacco. We were provided 

 with cheap brown ones, with wooden stern?, which were 

 much liked by the natives, and it is probable that small brier- 

 wood pipes, which are not liable to break, would form an 

 acceptable addition to any stock of trading goods". Tho 

 Tchuktchi of north-eastern Asia are devoted worshipers of 

 tobacco, and is one of the chief articles of trade with them. 

 Their pipes are large, much larger at the stem than the bowl. 

 In smoking, they swallow the fumes of the tobacco which 

 causes intoxication for a time. " The desire to procure a few 

 of its narcotic leaves induces the American Esquimaux from 



