OF THE OLD AND NEW WOELD. 331 



material, found on the shores of Lake Sirncoe, and now in my pos- 

 session, measures five and three quarter inches in length, and nearly 

 four inches in greatest breadth, yet the capacity of the bowl hollowed 

 in it for the reception of tobacco is even less than in the smallest of 

 the " Elfin Pipes." In contrast to this, a modern Winnebago pipe 

 recently acquired by me, made of the same red pipe stone, inlaid 

 with lead and executed with ingenious skill, has a bowl of large 

 dimensions illustrative of Indian smoking usages modified by the in- 

 fluence of the white man. 



From the red pipe stone, as well as from limestone and other 

 harder rocks, the Cbippeways, the Winnebagos, and the Siouxs, fre- 

 quently make a peculiar class of pipes, inlaid with lead. Mr. Kane 

 has in his possession an ingeniously carved red stone Sioux pipe, in 

 form of a human figure, lying on the back, with the knees bent up 

 towards the breast, and head thrown forward. The hollowed head 

 forms the bowl of the pipe, while the tube is perforated through the 

 annus ; as is the case with another, but much ruder example of 

 pipe sculpture, carved from a light colored sandstone found on the 

 Niami Biver, Ohio.* 



The Chinook and Puget Sound Indians, who evince little taste in 

 comparison with the tribes surrounding them, in ornamenting their 

 persons or their warlike and domestic implements, commonly use 

 wooden pipes. Sometimes these are elaborately carved, but most 

 frequently they are rudely and hastily made for immediate use; and 

 even among these remote tribes of the flat head Indians, the common 

 clay pipe of the fur trader begins to supersede such native arts. 



Among the Assinaboin Indians a material is used in pipe-manu- 

 facture altogether peculiar to them. It is a fine marble, much too 

 hard to admit of minute carving, but taking a high polish. This is 

 cut into pipes of graceful form, and made so extremely thin, as to be 

 nearly transparent, so that when lighted the glowing tobacco shines 

 through, and presents a singular appearance when in use at night or 

 in a dark lodge. Another favourite material eruptoyed by the Assina- 

 boin Indians is a coarse species of jasper also too hard to admit of elabo- 

 rate ornamentation. This also is cut into various simple but tasteful 

 designs, executed chiefly by the slow and laborious process of rubbing 

 it clown with other stones. The choice of the material for fashioning 

 the favourite pipe, is by no means invariably guided by the facilities 

 which the location of the tribe affords. A suitable stone for such 

 a purpose will be picked up and carried hundreds of miles. Mr. 



* Monuments of the Mississippi Valley. Page 247. Fig. 140. 



