748 Catlinite. [July, 
ment as being “made of a polished red stone, like marble, so 
pierced that one end serves to hold the tobacco, while the other 
is fastened on the stem, which is a stick two feet long, as thick as 
a common cane, and pierced in the middle; it is ornamented with 
the head and neck of different birds of beautiful plumage; they 
also add large feathers of red, green and other colors, with which 
it is all covered.”? 
The red stone to which this writer alludes was, in all proba- 
bility, the pipestone of Minnesota. 
“The pipe of peace,” remarks Carver, “which is termed by the 
French, the calumet, for what reason I could never learn, is about 
four feet long. The bowl of it is made of red marble, and the 
stem of it of a light wood, curiously painted with hieroglyphics 
in various colors, and adorned with the feathers of the most beau- 
tifsh-birds.”* 
“This Calumet,’ writes Father Hennepin, “is the most myste- — 
rious Thing in the World among the Savages of the Continent 
of the Northern America; for it is usd in all their important — 
Transactions: However, it is nothing else but a large Tobacco- — 
Pipe made of Red, Black or White Marble: The Head is finely 
polished, and the Quill, which is commonly two feet and a h 
long, is made of a pretty strong Reed or Cane, adorn’d with 
Feathers of all Colours, interlac’d with Locks of Women’s Hat 
They tie to it two Wings of the most curious Birds they 4% 
which makes their Calumet not much unlike Mercury’s Wand, of 
that Staff Ambassadors: did formerly carry when they went 7 
treat of Peace. They sheath that Reed into the neck of Birds 
they call Huars, which are as big as our Geese, and spotted ik 
Black and White; or else of a sort of Ducks who make thar ; 
nests upon Trees, tho’ water be their ordinary Element, and whose y 
feathers are of many different Colours. However, every Natio® : 
adorns the Calumet as they think according to their own Genius ; 
and the Birds they have in their country.” oe 
Mr. John F. Watson, in his “ Annals of Philadelphia.” qual s 
1 Dis. and Ex. Miss. Val., by J. G. Shea, New York, 1852. Father James 
quette’s Narrative, p, 35. 
er’s Travels, Dublin, 1779, p. 336. 
According to Mr. Shea, “ We are probably indebted to Father Marquet ‘ 
addition to our language of this word” (calumet). (Dis. and Ex. Miss. ; pa j 
p: 21.) 
A 
3 Discovery, etc., p. 93. London, 1698. u 
Quoted by Col, C. C. Jones in “ Antiquities of the Southern Indians. 
