THE 'GEORGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY. 411 



The source from whence all these |)ipes come is undoubtedly somewhere between 

 this .place and the Mississippi River, and as the Iudians all speak of it as a great 

 medicine place, I shall certainly lay my course to it ere long and be able to give the 

 world some account of it and its mysteries. [See p. 337 herein.] 



The Indians shape out the bowls of these pipes from the solid stone, which is not quite 

 as hard as marble, with nothing but a knifo. The stone, which is of a cherry red, 

 admits of a beautiful polish, and the Indian makes the hole in the bowl of the pipe 

 by drilling into it a hard stick, shaped to the desired size, with a quantity of sharp 

 sand and water kept constantly in the hole, subjecting him, therefore, to a very great 

 labor and the necessity of much patience. 



The shafts or stems of these pipes, as will be seen in Plate 98, are from two to four 

 feet long, sometimes round, but most generally flat, of an inch or two in breadth, 

 and wound half their length or more with braids of porcupines' quills, and often 

 ornamented with beaks and tufts from the woodpecker's head, with ermine skins and 

 long red hair, dyed from white horse-hair or white buffalo's tail. 



The stems of these pipes will be found to be carved in many ingenious forms, and 

 in all cases they are perforated through the center, quite staggering the wits of the 

 enlightened world to guess how the holes have been bored through them, until it is 

 simply and briefly explained, that the stems are uniformly made of the stalk of the 

 young ash, which generally grows straight, and has a small pith through the center, 

 which is easily burned out with a hot wire, or a piece of hard wood, by a much slower 

 process. 



In Plate 98, the pipes marked b are ordinary pipes, made and used for the luxury 

 only of smoking ; and for this purpose every Indian designs and constructs his own 

 pipe. The calumet, or pipe of peace (Plate 98 a), ornamented with the war eagle's 

 q nills, is a sacred pipe, and never allowed to be used on any other occasion than that of 

 peace-making ; when the chief brings it into treaty, and unfolding the many band- 

 ages which are carefully kept around it, has it ready to be mutually smoked by the 

 chiefs, after the terms of the treaty are agreed upon, as the means of solemnizing or 

 signing, by an illiterate people, who cannot draw up an instrument and sign their 

 names to it as it is done in the civilized world. 



The mode of solemnizing is by passing the sacred stem to each chief, who draws 

 one breath of smoke only through it, thereby passing the most inviolable pledge that 

 they can possibly give for the keeping of the peace. This sacred pipe is then carefully 

 folded up and stowed away in the chief's lodge, until a similar occasion calls it out to be 

 used in a similar manner. 



There is no custom more uniformly in constant use amongst the poor Indians than 

 that of smoking, nor any other more highly valued. His pipe is his constant com- 

 panion through life— his messenger of peace ; he pledges his friends through its stem 

 and its bowl— aud when its care-drowning fumes cease to flow, it takes a place with 

 him in his solitary grave, with his tomahawk and war-club, companions to his long- 

 fancied "mild and beau tiful hunting-grounds." — Pages 233-235, vol. 1, Catlin's Eight 

 Years. 



INDIAN WEAPONS. 



The weapons of these people, like their pipes, are numerous, and mostly manufact- 

 ured by themselves. In a former place (Plate 18) I have described a part of these, 

 such as the bows and arrows, lances, &c, and they have yet many others, specimens 

 of which I have collected from every tribe, and a number of which I have grouped 

 together in Plate 99, consisting of knives, war-clubs, and tomahawks. I have here 

 introduced the most general and established forms that are in use amongst the different 

 tribes, which are all strictly copied from amongst the great variety of these articles to 

 bo found in my collection. 



The scalping-knives, a and &, andtomahawkwS, e e e e, are of civilized manufacture, 

 made expressly for Indian use, and carried into the Indian country by thousands and 



