30 TOBACCO IN AMERICA. 



or obsidian (as used by the Peruvians and Mexicans), 

 and then carefully finished by rubbing or grinding on 

 stones possessing a sharp grit. 



" From the appearance of these relics it is fairly 

 inferable that, among the mound-builders, as among 

 the tribes of North American Indians, the practice of 

 smoking was very general if not universal. The con- 

 jecture that it was also more or less interwoven with 

 their civil and religious observances, is not without its 

 support. The use of tobacco was known to nearly all 

 the American nations, and the pipe was their grand 

 diplomatist. In making war and in concluding peace 

 it performed an important part. Their deliberations, 

 domestic as well as public, were conducted under its 

 influences ; and no treaty was ever made unsignalised 

 by the passage of the calumet. The transfer of the 

 pipe from the lips of one individual to those of another 

 was the token of amity and friendship, a gage of honour 

 with the chivalry of the forest which was seldom 

 violated. In their religious ceremonies it was also 

 introduced, with various degrees of solemnity. A sub- 

 stitute for tobacco was sometimes furnished in the 

 tender bark of the young willow; other substitutes were 

 found among the Northern tribes in the leaves and 

 roots of various pungent herbs. The custom extended 

 to Mexico, where however it does not seem to have 

 been invested with any of those singular convention- 

 alities observed in the higher latitudes. It prevailed 

 in South, America and in the Caribbean islands. The 

 form of the Indian pipe in North America is extremely 



