The Beginning of Smoking ii 



mainland tobacco was first powdered and then 

 smoked through a pipe, of which there were three 

 kinds — the forked tobago, a simple hollow reed, and 

 a pipe of stone as Cartier describes. 



More than natural virtues were attributed to 

 tobacco. It was regarded as a gift from the Great 

 Spirit for man's enjoyment and benefit. Believing 

 that the Great Spirit smoked tobacco, the herb was 

 deemed sacred, and its use a laudable, if not a 

 religious, practice. According to the legend of the 

 Susquehannah Indians, in the beginning they had 

 only the flesh of animals to eat, failing which they 

 starved. One day, so ran the story, two hunters 

 were broiling part of a deer they had just killed, 

 when they saw a maiden of surpassing beauty 

 descend from the sky and seat herself on a hill 

 close by. Presuming that she was a goddess who 

 had smelt their venison, they offered her their 

 greatest delicacy, the tongue of the deer. She 

 accepted the dainty, and being pleased therewith, 

 promised to reward their kindness, telling them to 

 return to the place after thirteen moons. After a 

 year the hunters returned and found maize growing 

 where the goddess's right hand had touched the hill, 

 kidney beans where her left hand had rested, and 

 tobacco where she had sat. 



Tobacco and smoking played a great part in the 

 social and religious economy of the Red Indians, 

 War was proclaimed by the sending round of the 

 pipe of war, and peace declared by the solemn 

 smoking of the calumet of peace. The medicine- 

 man administered tobacco to cure illness; and his 



