BULL. 30] 



CALUMET 



193 



male eagle, and the shaft is dark blue. 

 Two sj'mbolically painted gourd rattles 

 are also employed, 1 for each calumet. 



When these shafts are set against the 2 

 forked sticks the heads of the ducks are 

 placed nextto the ground. Close to these 

 shafts are 2 sticks connected with a sacred 

 ear of corn, which must be in perfect con- 

 dition ; ears containing rough or shriveled 

 or otherwise imperfect grains are re- 

 jected. All the people use corn for food, 

 hence it is regarded as a mother. These 

 sticks are tinted with Indian red. The 

 longer stick, which stands nearer the calu- 

 met shafts, is driven about 4 in. into the 

 earth and projects several inches above 

 the ear of corn, the top end of it being 

 on a level with that of the ear of corn, 

 while the lower end hangs a short dis- 

 tance below the lower end of the ear of 

 corn, but does not reach the ground. 

 The ear of corn is fastened to the sticks 

 by wrapping around the 3 a band braided 

 from hair from the head of a buffalo. 

 To the top of the smaller stick an eagle 

 plume is secured with sinew. The lower 

 part of the ear of corn is white; the upper 

 part is painted green. 



In this dance, lasting an hour, the 

 movements of the war eagle are closely 

 imitated, accompanied by a constant 

 waving of the calumets. After the de- 

 livery of presents, the 2 calumets are 

 given to the family to which the adopted 

 child belongs. Such are, according to 

 Dorsey, the Omaha calumets with their 

 use in a ceremony for making a sacred 

 kinship in the adoption of a child, who 

 for this purpose must be less than 10 

 years of age. The Ponka use only 1 cal- 

 umet, although they are well acquainted 

 with the Omaha use of 2, and it may be 

 a higher development of the intention of 

 the symbolism. 



From Dorsey's account of the Omaha 

 calumets it is evident that they are to- 

 gether the most highly organized em- 

 blems known to religious observances 

 anywhere, and it is further in evidence 

 that the pipe is an accessory rather than 

 the dominant or chief object in this 

 highly complex synthetic symbol of the 

 source, reproduction, and conservation 

 of life. 



For the purpose of comparison, the fol- 

 lowing description of the calumet by 

 Hennepin may be given: "The quill, 

 which is commonly two foot and a half 

 long, is made of a pretty strong reed or 

 cane, adorned with feathers of all colors, 

 interlaced with locks of w^omen's hair. 

 They tie to it two wings of the most 

 curious, birds they find, which makes 

 their calumet not much unlike Mercury's 

 wand, or that staff ambassadors did for- 

 merly carry when they w-ent to treat of 

 peace. They sheath that reed into the 



neck of birds they call huars [loons], 

 which are as big as our geese and spotted 

 with black and white; or else of a sort of 

 ducks who make their nests upon trees, 

 though water be their natural element, 

 and whose feathers are of many different 

 colours. However, every nation adorns 

 the calumet as they think fit, according to 

 their own genius and the birds they have 

 in their own country." 



In her description of the Hako cere- 

 monial of trie Pawnee, Miss Fletcher has 

 set forth these conceptions with great 

 sympathy and detail. Among this people 

 two ash saplings are cut and brought with 

 due ceremony; they are then warmed 

 and straightened over a newly kindled 

 sacred fire, and are cut the required 

 length, "four spans from the thumb to 

 the third finger." They are then peeled 

 and the pith removed to permit the pas- 

 sage of the breath. A straight groove is 

 cut the entire length of each shaft, and 

 after the litter thus made is cast into the 

 fire, the shafts are passed through the 

 flames, ' ' the word of the fire. ' ' Thereupon 

 one of the shafts, with the exception of 

 the groove, is painted blue with cere- 

 monially prepared color to symbolize the 

 sky, and while this is being done there is 

 intoned a song in which a prayer is made 

 that life be given to this symbol of the 

 dwelling place of the chief deity. Then 

 the shaft is placed in the hands of the 

 chief shaman, whose function it is to 

 paint the groove red, typifying the path- 

 way of the spirits, represented by the 

 objects placed later upon this ashen shaft, 

 for their going forth to aid man in this 

 ceremony; and, furthermore, the red color 

 here employed typifies the passageways 

 of the body, through which the breath of 

 man — his life — comes and departs, and the 

 sun is red, and also straight — like unto 

 this — is the pathway on which the sun 

 shines. In similar fashion is the other 

 shaft painted green and its groove red, 

 the latter color having the same signifi- 

 cance it has on the other shaft, and the 

 green color is employed to symbolize 

 vegetation-, the living covering of mother 

 earth. In the accompanying song a 

 prayer is made that life be breathed into 

 the symbol to make it efficient in the ap- 

 proaching ceremonies and that living 

 power may abide where this symbol 

 shall be placed. Then the shaman, after 

 anointing his hands with a sacred oint- 

 ment, consisting of red clay and the fat 

 of a deer or buffalo that has been con- 

 secrated to the chief deity, binds the 

 symbolic objects separately on the two 

 shafts. Splitting long feathers from the 

 wings of an eagle, he glues them with 

 pine pitch on the shaft, as in feathering 

 an arrow. These feathers signify that 

 the eagle soars near the abode of the 



Bull. 30—05- 



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