H 



"to take the pipe till he had made himself a name, and 

 was entitled to sit in council." 



Some Indians, Williams wrote elsewhere, did not 

 smoke, 



But they are rare Birds: for generally all the 

 men throughout the country have a tobacco- 

 bag with a pipe in it hanging at their back; 

 sometimes they make such great pipes both of 

 wood and stone that they are two feet long, 

 with men and beasts carved, so big and 

 massive that a man may be hurt inoiially by 

 one of them. 

 Usually, he went on to say, these big-pipe Indians 

 were "Men-eaters" who came from places several hun- 

 dred miles off to the west. The natives he observed told 

 him that they smoked to prevent toothache and because 

 it refreshed and revived them. Yet only the bravest of 

 the braves could take the native type in its natural state. 

 The usual practice among northeastern tribes was to 

 mix their strong tobacco with leaves of bland flavor and 

 herbs, together with a little oil as a binder. Even this 

 blend was far too pungent for white men. 



Several 17th century visitors to New England, com- 

 menting on the "small, round leafed tobacco called 

 Pooke," likened it to henbane, or remarked that it was 

 "odious" to the English. Some of these observers saw 

 Indians smoking pipes made from a lobster or crab claw. 



andlcaps to culture 



Hampered as they were by the orders of the General 

 Court and the overseers of morals, planters had to con- 

 fine themselves to small fields of tobacco. About the 



19 



