OF THE OLD AND NEW WO ELD. 237 



origin. The practice of smoking narcotics, is interwoven with all 

 their habits, so that they even reckon time by pipes, using such word 

 sentences as ningopwaligmi i " I was one pipe [of time] about it". 



In the Old World most of the ideas connected with the tobacco pipe 

 are homely and prosaic enough : and though we associate the 

 chibouk with the poetical reveries of the oriental day-dreamer, and 

 the hookah with the pleasant fancies of the Anglo-Indian reposing 

 in the shade of his bungaloose : nevertheless, the tobacco pipe 

 constitutes the peculiar and most characteristic symbol of America, 

 intimately interwoven with the rites and superstitions, and with 

 the relics of ancient customs aud historical traditions of the 

 Aborigines of this New World. If Europe borrowed from it the first 

 knowledge of its prized narcotic, the gift was received unaccompanied 

 by any of the sacred or peculiar virtues which the lied Indian still 

 attaches to it as the symbol of hospitality and amicable intercourse ; 

 and Longfellow, accordingly, with no less poetic vigor, than fitness, 

 opens his " Song of Hiawatha" with the institution of " the peace- 

 pipe," by the Great Spirit, the master of life. With all the un- 

 poetical associations which are inseparable from the modern uses of 

 the nicotian weed, it required the inspiration of true poetry to re- 

 deem it from its base ideal. But this the American poet has 

 accomplished fully, and with the boldest figures. The Master of Life 

 descends on the mountains of the Prabie, breaks a fragment from 

 the red stone of the quarry, and fashioning it with curious art into a 

 figured pipe-head, he fills it with the bark of the red willow, chafes 

 the forest into flame with the tempest of his breath, and kindling it : 



Erect upon the mountains 



Gitche Manito, the mighty, 



Smoked the calumet, the peace-pipe, 



As a signal to the nations. 



And the smoke rose slowly, slowly, 



Through the tranquil air of morning, 



First a single line of daikuess, 



Tiien a denser, bluer vnpor, 



Then a snow-white cloud unfolding, 



Like the tree tops of the forest, 



Ever rising, rising, rising, 



Till it touched the top of heaven, 



Till it broke against the heaven 



And rolled onward all around it. 



And the tribes of the ancient Aborigines gathering from river, 

 lake, and prairie, assemble at the divine summons, listen to the warn- 

 ings and promises with which the Great Spirit seeks to guide them ; 



