SMOKING PIPES 195 



with our common clay pipe. And in British Columbia 

 pipes are occcasionally met with in the possession of the 

 native Indians, moulded and carved by themselves in 

 almost every variety of fantastic form, and with tracery that 

 would do no discredit to modern art. These are for the 

 most part made of blue slate-clay, and have intricate pierced 

 work carried through the tube. In old Indian grave- 

 mounds Messrs Squier & Davis, in the course of their 

 explorations in 1846-7, found pipes cut into the form of 

 human heads, the features on which were singularly truthful 

 and expressive; and what was still more remarkable was 

 their strikingly Mongolian type, a circumstance which lends 

 support to the hypothesis that in the remote past the 

 American continent was peopled from the eastern part of 

 Asia. Some of the pipes found in these mounds represented 

 animals peculiar to the lower latitudes. On one pipe the 

 otter is shown in the attitude of holding a fish in its mouth : 

 on another the heron has seized a fish ; the hawk is 

 grasping a small bird, and with its beak is in the act of 

 tearing it to pieces. Almost every bird and animal 

 common to the country is found boldly carved on the pipes 

 of the aborigines of America. 



The material for pipes mostly sought after by the natives 

 is the beautiful and easily wrought red sandstone of the 

 Coteau des Prairies. The calumet, which plays an 

 important part in their civil and religious observances, is 

 made from this source, chiefly on account of the legend 

 respecting its origin and the origin of smoking, mentioned 

 in the first chapter. One can hardly help seeing in the 

 handiwork shown in the make of these curious smoking 

 instruments points of contact with the social condition and 

 intelligence of the makers. From the short nostril tube 

 of the Caribs to the feathered peace-pipe of the continental 



