330 NARCOTIC USAGES AND SUPERSTITIONS 



of spirit.' 1 '' The latter remark, however, is scarcely borne out by the 

 accompanying illustration, and it seems by no means improbable that 

 these objects furnish specimens of the Indian arts of Virginia in the 

 time of Raleigh. They certainly present no such marked character- 

 istics as to justify their classification with the ingenious sculptures of 

 the Mound Builders. The same remarks apply to examples procured 

 by Schoolcraft, Squier, and other writers ; and among such may be 

 included two clay pipes, one of them found in a mound in Florida, 

 and the other in South Carolina, and both described in the " Ancient 

 Monuments of the Mississippi Valley."* Most of the ancient clay 

 pipes that have been discovered are stated to have the same form ; and 

 this, it may be noted, bears so near a resemblance to that of the red 

 clay pipe used in modern Turkey, with the cherry-tree pipe-stem, 

 that it might be supposed to have furnished the model. The 

 bowls of this class of ancient clay pipes are not of the miniature 

 proportions which induce a comparison between those of Canada and 

 the early examples found in Britaia ; neither do the stone pipe-heads 

 of the Mound Builders, suggest by the size of the bowl, either the 

 self denying economy of the ancient smoker, or his practise of the 

 modern Indian mode of exhaling the fumes of the tobacco, by which 

 so small a quantity suffices to produce the full narcotic effects 

 of the favorite weed. They would rather seem to confirm 

 the indications derived from other sources, of an essential difference 

 between the ancient smoking usages of Central America and of the 

 Mound-Builders, and those which are still maintained in their 

 primeval integrity among the Indians of the North West. 



Great variety of form and material distingiiish.es the pipes of the 

 modern Indians ; arising in part from the local facilities they possess 

 for a suitable material from which to construct them ; and in part 

 also from the special style of art and decoration which has become 

 the traditional usage of the tribe. The favourite red pipe-stone of 

 the Couteau des Prairies, has been generally sought after, both from 

 its easiness of working and the beauty of its appearance. The 

 region of its celebrated quarries is connected with curious Indian 

 traditions, and the locality appears to have been consecrated for many 

 generations, as a sacred neutral ground whereon parties of rival 

 tribes might freely assemble to supply themselves with the material 

 requisite for their pipe manufacture, as secure from danger as when 

 the peace-pipe has been smoked, and the tomahawk buried by the 

 Chiefs of the Indian nations. A pipe of this favourite aud beautiful 



* Smithsonian Contributions. \'<>\. f. Page 194. Pig. 80. 



