TEE CEREMONIAL USE OF TOBACCO. < : 



lodge (a common institation in America I was observed by Loskiel 

 among the Delaware Indians. After a feast in honor of the fire- 

 god and his twelve attendant manitous, a hnt was constructed of 

 skins stretched upon twelve poles tied together at the top. Into 

 this hut twelve men were crowded, twelve red-hot stones we: e 

 placed among them, and upon these stones an old man threw 

 twelve pipefuls of tobacco. The men had to remain inside as long 

 as they could endure the heat and smoke, and when taken out at 

 last they were almost suffocated, generally falling in a swoon. 

 The precise object of this ceremony is not mentioned, but it is 

 probable that the dominant idea was that of a spiritual inter- 

 course between the swooning men and the deitie-. 



The origin of the custom of smoking tobacco may. with some 

 degree of probability, be traced to the ceremonies here recounted. 

 That stage of primitive culture which is characterized by a strong 

 belief in the reality of dream figures and the prophetic nature of 

 visions tended inevitably to engender a class of professional 

 dreamers and soothsay-rs. When dreams were in great demand, 

 it was natural that some man in every savage community, on ac- 

 count of a mental peculiarity — a taint of insanity, or some power- 

 ful nervous derangement — should become distinguished above his 

 fellows for vivid and frequent visions. As the business of the 

 prophet and seer increased, it became necessary for him to adopt 

 artificial measures for bringing on the condition of stupor which 

 was essential to the exercise of his calling. He therefore resorted 

 to fasting, or, more frequently, to the use of narcotic drugs. 

 Along the Amazon the seeds of Mimosa acaeioides were thus em- 

 ployed ; among the Peruvians and the Darien Indians it was the 

 Datura sanguinea : in Brazil, the Wes: Indies, and Xorth Amer- 

 ica the great narcotic was tobacco. 



In like manner it may be reasonably conjectured that tobacco 

 did not become an article of sacrifice and incense until it had 

 passed out of the hands of the medicine-men, by whom alone it 

 was at first used. In everv age men have offered in sacrifice that 

 which they valued most — the best and first fruits, and the most 

 precious of their flocks. Tobacco must have come into general 

 use and become one of the Indian s most prized possessions before 

 it was offered as a gift to bis deities. It is not difficult to trace 

 this advance from its restricted use by professional dreamers as 

 just described. When men had learned that the sacred herb could 

 drive away disease, recall the past and reveal the future, tL 

 naturally wished to try its effects upon themselves — to walk in 

 person in the hidden land of spirits, instead of sending the medi- 

 cine-man as a deputy. Thus, in time, every man became bis own 

 seer, tobacco rose in the estimation of the Indian above all his 

 other possessions; and smoking became a common practice. 



