singular method
of smoking tobacco, in which these things are always observed:

1. They take a pipe much larger and bigger than the common tobacco
pipe, expressly made for that purpose, with which all towns are
plentifully provided; they call them the pipes of peace.

2. This pipe they always fill with tobacco, before the face of the
strangers, and light it.

3. The chief man of the Indians, to whom the strangers come, takes
two or three whiffs, and then hands it to the chief of the
strangers.

4. If the stranger refuses to smoke in it, 'tis a sign of war.

5. If it be peace, the chief of the strangers takes a whiff or two
in the pipe, and presents it to the next great man of the town
they come to visit; he, after taking two or three whiffs, gives it
back to the next of the strangers, and so on alternately, until
they have past all the persons of note on each side, and then the
ceremony is ended.

After a little discourse, they march together in a friendly manner into
the town, and then proceed to explain the business upon which they came.
This method is as general a rule among all the Indians of those parts of
America as the flag of truce is among the Europeans. And though the
fashion of the pipe differ, as well as the ornaments of it, according to
the humor of the several nations, yet 'tis a general rule to make these
pipes remarkably bigger than those for common use, and to adorn them
with beautiful wings and feathers of birds, as likewise with peak,
beads, or other such foppery. Father Lewis Henepin gives a particular
description of one that he took notice of among the Indians upon the
lakes wherein he traveled. He describes it by the name of the calumet of
peace, and his words are these, Book I., chap. 24:

"This calumet is the most mysterious thing in the world among the
savages of the continent of the Northern America; for it is used 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 half long, is
made of a pretty strong reed or cane, adorned with feathers of all
colors, interlaced with locks of women's hair. They tie it to two wings
of the most curious birds they can find, which makes their calumet not
much unlike Mercury's wand, or that staff ambassadors did formerly carry
when they went to treat of peace. They sheath that