SMOKING IN ALASKA. 141 
through it. Nothing can be more binding than smoking the 
pipe of peace and is considered by them to be an inviolable 
pledge. There is no custom more uniformly in constant use 
amongst the poor Indians than that of smoking nor any more 
highly valued. His pipe is his constant companion through 
life—his messenger of peace; he pledges his friends through 
its stem and its bowl, and when its care-drowning fumes 
cease to flow, it takes a place with him in his solitary grave 
with his tomahawk and war-club companions to his long- 
fancied ‘happy hunting grounds.’” 
From specimens of clay pipes found at the South from 
Virginia to Florida it would seem that the Indians had a 
great variety of pipes some of which were beautifully carved 
while others are perfectly plain. Many of them however are 
of rude workmanship and might have been fashioned by 
some of the tribe unacquainted with pipe-making. 
Dall gives the following account of smoking among the 
natives of Alaska: 
“We broke camp about five o’clock in the morning. 
Nothing occurred to break the monotony of constant steady 
plodding. Two Indians in the bow of the boat would 
row until tired, and then we would stop for a few minutes to 
rest, and let them smoke. The last operation takes less than 
a minute; their pipes are so constructed as to hold but a very 
small pinch of tobacco. The bowl, with ears for tying it to 
the stem is generally cast out of lead. Sometimes it is made 
of soft stone, bone or even hard wood. Thestem is made of 
two pieces of wood hollowed on one side, and bound to the 
bowl and each other by a narrow strip of deerskin. In 
smoking the economical Indian generally cuts up a little 
birch wood, or the inner bark of the poplar, and mixes it 
with his tobacco. A few reindeer hairs pulled from his 
paska, are rolled into a little ball, and placed in the bottom 
of the bow] to prevent the contents from being drawn into 
the stem. A pinch of tobacco cut as fine as snuff is inserted 
and two or three whitis are afforded by it. 
The smoke is inhaled into the lungs, producing a momen- 
tary stupor andthe operation is over. A fungus which 
grows on decayed birch trees, or tinder manufactured from 
the down of the poplar rubbed up with charcoal is used with 
flint and steel for obtaining a light. Matches are highly 
