128 CHIPPEWA PIPES. 
peace, is still an object of special reverence with the Indian 
tribes, and the pipe-stem is ornamented with six or eight eagle’s 
SCULPTURED PIPE, 
feathers. Each tribe has an official who takes charge of the 
calumet, which he keeps rolled up in a bearskin robe; and 
it’s never exposed to view or used, except when the chief 
enters into a treaty with some neighboring chief. On these 
occasions the pipe is taken out of its covering by the Indian 
dignitary, ready charged with the “holy weed,” when it is 
smoked by all the chiefs, each one taking only a single breath 
of smoke, which is regarded as implementing the treaty. 
The pipe is then rolled up in its robe of fur, and stowed 
away in the lodge of its. keeper until it is again required. 
The war pipe is simply a tomahawk, with a perforated handle 
communicating with the bowl, which is opposite the sharp 
edge of the weapon. When the Indians joined the British 
as allies during the American war, they had to be supplied 
with iron tomahawks of the native pattern, before they, 
could enter the field as allies. 
Many tribes of Indians use herbs of various kinds to mix 
with tobacco to reduce its strength, as they are in the habit 
of exhaling the smoke from the nostrils, and not from the 
mouth. By the adoption of this means a much smaller 
quantity of tobacco suffices to produce the soothing influence 
on the nervous system so well known to votaries of the weed. 
Longfellow, in his great Indian epic of the Song of Hiawa- 
tha, has portrayed with graphic power in pleasing verse the 
mysterious legends describing the birth or institution of the 
peace-pipe by Gitche Manito, “The Master of Life;” anda 
few extracts from “ Hiawatha” may be interesting to illus- 
