410 THE GEORGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY. 



patiently drags his load — a part of the household goods and furniture of the lodge to 

 which he belongs. Two poles, about 15 feet long, are placed upon the dog's shoulder, 

 in the same manner as the lodge poles are attached to the horses, leaving the larger 

 ends to drag upon the ground behind him ; on which is placed a bundle or wallet 

 which is allotted to him to carry, and with which he trots off amid the throng of 

 dogs and squaws, faithfully and cheerfully dragging his load 'till night, and by the 

 way loitering and occasionally 



''Catching at little bits of fan and glee, 

 That's played on dogs enslaved by dog that's free." 



[Pages 43,44, vol. 1, Catlin's Eight Years. 



INDIAN PIPES AND SMOKING. 



During my stay amongst the Sioux, as I was considered by them to be great medi- 

 cine, I received many pipes and other little things from them as presents, given to 

 me in token of respect for me, and as assurances of their friendship ; and I, being 

 desirous to collect and bring from their country every variety of their manufactures, 

 of their costumes, their weapons, their pipes, and thjeir mystery-things, purchased a 

 great many others, for which, as I was "medicine" and a " great white chief!" I 

 was necessarily obliged to pay very liberal prices. 



Of the various costumes (of this as well as of other tribes) that I have collected 

 there will be seen fair and faithful representations in the numerous portraits, and of 

 their war clubs, pipes, &c. I have set forth in the following -illustrations a few of 

 the most interesting of the very great numbers of those things which I have collected 

 in this and other tribes which I have visited. 



The luxury of smoking is known to all the North American Indians in their primi- 

 tive state, and that before they have any knowledge of tobacco, which is only intro- 

 duced amongst them by civilized adventurers, who teach them the use and lnxury oi 

 whisky at the same time. 



In their native state they are excessive smokers, and many of them, I would venture 

 the assertion, would seem to be smoking one-half of their lives. There may be two 

 good reasons for this, the first of which is, that the idle and leisure life that the Indian 

 leads (who has no trade or business to follow, no office hours to attend to, or profes- 

 sion to learn) induces him to look for occupation and amusement in so innocent a 

 luxury, which again further tempts him to its excessive use from its feeble and harm- 

 less effects on the system. There are many weeds and leaves and barks of trees which 

 are narcotics, and of spontaneous growth in their countries, which the Indians dry 

 and pulverize and carry in pouches and smoke to great excess, and which in several 

 of the languages, when thus prepared, is called Wnick Wneck. 



As smoking is a luxury so highly valued by the Indians, they have bestowed much 

 pains, and not a little ingenuity, to the construction of their pipes. Of these I have 

 procured a collection of several hundreds, and in Plate 98 have given facsimile out- 

 lines of a number of the most curious. The bowls of these are generally made of the 

 red steatite, or " pipe-stone " (as it is more familiarly called in this country), and 

 many of them designed and carved with much taste and skill, with figures and 

 groups in alto relievo standing or reclining upon them. 



The red stone of which these pipe-bowls are made is, in my estimation, a great 

 curiosity ; inasmuch as I am sure it is a variety of steatite (if it be steatite) differing 

 from that of any known European locality, and also from any locality known in 

 America other than the one from which all these pipes come, and which are all 

 traceable I have found to one source, and that source as yet unvisited except by the 

 red man, who describes it everywhere as a place of vast importance to the Indians, 

 as given to them by the Great Spirit for their pipes, and strictly forbidden to be used 

 for anything else. 



