FOWKB] 



USE AND VARIETY OF TUBES. 



127 



Schoolcraft observed that the Dakota Indians used a liorn tube in 

 bleeding; one end was set over the cut, and the other vigorously- 

 sucked. ' Powers says that tlie Klamath Indians use tubes for smok- 

 ing, ^ while H. n. Bancroft says that the Acaxees of Mexico employ 

 '■ blowing through a hollow tube" for the cure of disease,^ and also 

 that the Indians of southern California inhale smoke of certain herbs 

 through a tube to produce intoxication. ^ According to C. C. Jones the 

 Florida and Virginia Indians used reeds in treating diseases by suck- 

 ing or blowing through them, and also used them in cauterizing; and 

 he observes that the Indians of Lower California employed similar 

 processes, using stone tubes'' instead of reeds. Ilofi'man illustrates the 

 removal of disease through the agency of a tube of bone by a Jes'sakid' 

 or medicine-man of the Ojibwa. ^ Eead calls at- 

 tention to the fact that the old Spanish writers 

 describe a forked wooden tube, the prongs being 

 inserted in the nostrils, while the other end was 

 held over smoldering herbs, and suggests that the 

 Indians may have used stone tubes in the same 

 way. ' 



The Indian mode of inhaling smoke would pro- 

 duce the same result, whether drawn tln-ough the 

 mouth or into the nostrils. 



The use of stone tubes for astronomical purposes, 

 which has been discovered by some imaginative 

 writers, is, of course, absurd ; nevertheless they 

 are useful in viewing distant objects on a bright 

 day, especially when looking toward the sun. 



Nearly all of the tubes made of soft material 

 with tapering perforation seem to have been gouged 

 rather than drilled. Schumacher observes that the California Indians 

 drilled their tubes from both ends and enlarged the hole from one end 

 by scraping, the mouthpiece being made of a bird bone stuck on with 

 asphaltum." 



There are five classes of stone tubes in the collection of the Bureau, 

 as follows: 



A. One end flattened and expanding into a wing on either side. 

 This class is illustrated by figure 154 (from Kanawha valley. West 

 Virginia). The corners of this specimen have been trimmed off; the 

 typical form is indicated by the dotted lines. There are also from the 



'ludian Triljes, vol. I. p. 253. 

 ■Coutributiona toN. A. Etlu, vol. in. p 420. 

 ^Native Races, vol. i, p. 58D. 

 4Ibitl., p. 566. 



^Antiquities of the Southern Indiana, pp. 362-364. 



^Hoifman, W. J.; '■The Mule'vviwui of tlie Ojibwa." Seventh Annual Rep. Bur. Eth.. 1885-86, p. 

 278, pi. xvilT. 



'Aiuer. Antiquarian, vol. ll, p. 154. 

 "Peabody Mus., 11th Ann. Kept., p. 268. 



Fig. 15:; 



aff rubber. 



