OF THE OLD AND NEW "WORLD. 337 



depends its safety in peace and its success in war, and it is accord- 

 ingly guarded with all the veneration, and surrounded with the 

 dignity, befitting so sacred an institution ; while, in its use in the 

 war-council, or in the medicine dance, so long as the proper and con- 

 secrated pipe-stem is employed, it matters not whether the pipe itself 

 be of the richest carving of which the red stone of the couteau des 

 prairies is susceptible, or be the begrimed stump of a trader's English 

 "clay." 



The medicine pipe-stem carrier is accordingly an office of great 

 dignity in the tribe, and its holder is endowed with special, though 

 somewhat burdensome, honors and privileges. A highly ornamental 

 tent is protided for his use, and frequently he is required to have so 

 many horses as renders the office even more onerous than honour- 

 able. A bear-skin robe is set apart for wrapping up the medicine 

 pipe-stem, when carried, and for laying it on while exposed to view. 

 When wrapped up in its covering, the pipe-stem is usually carried 

 by the favourite wife of the dignitary, while he himself bears in his 

 hands — and not unfrequently on his head— the medicine bowl, out of 

 which he takes his food. But though the sacred pipe-stem is almost 

 invariably borne by the wife of the Indian dignitary, it is never 

 allowed to be uncovered in the presence of a woman, and should one 

 even by chance cast her eyes on it when thus exposed, its virtues 

 can only be restored by a tedious ceremony, designed to counteract 

 the evil effects and to propitiate the insulted spirit. If the stem is 

 allowed to fall to the ground, whether designedly or from accident, it 

 is in like manner regarded as an omen of evil, and many elaborate 

 ceremonies have to be gone through before it is reinstated in its 

 former favor and beneficent influence. Mr. Kane met with a young 

 Cree half-breed who confessed to him that, in a spirit of daring 

 scepticism, he had once secretly thrown down the medicine pipe-stem 

 and kicked it about ; but soon after its official carrier was slain, and 

 such misfortunes followed as left no doubt on his mind of the awful 

 sacredness pertaining to this guardian and avenger of the honor of 

 the tribe. The sacredness which attaches to the medicine pipe-stem 

 pertains in part also to its bearer. Many special honors are due to 

 him, and it is even a mark of disrespect, and unlucky, to pass be- 

 tween him and the fire. 



At Port Pitt, on the Sascatchewan Biver, Mr. Kane informs me 



that he met with Kea-keke-sacowaw, the head chief of the Cree 



nation, then engaged in raising a war party to make war on the 



Blackfeet. He had accordingly eleven medicine pipe-stems with 



VOL. II. — x 



