ke only through it. Nothing can be more binding than
smoking the pipe of peace and is considered by them to be an
inviolable pledge. There is no custom more uniformly in
constant use amongst the poor Indians than that of smoking
nor any more highly valued. His pipe is his constant
companion through life--his messenger of peace; he pledges
his friends through its stem and its bowl, and 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 'happy hunting grounds.'"

From specimens of clay pipes found at the South from Virginia to
Florida it would seem that the Indians had a great variety of pipes
some of which were beautifully carved while others are perfectly
plain. Many of them however are of rude workmanship and might have
been fashioned by some of the tribe unacquainted with pipe-making.

Dall gives the following account of smoking among the natives of
Alaska:

We broke camp about five o'clock in the morning. Nothing
occurred to break the monotony of constant steady plodding.
Two Indians in the bow of the boat would row until tired,
and then we would stop for a few minutes to rest, and let
them smoke. The last operation takes less than a minute;
their pipes are so constructed as to hold but a very small
pinch of tobacco. The bowl, with ears for tying it to the
stem is generally cast out of lead. Sometimes it is made of
soft stone, bone or even hard wood. The stem is made of two
pieces of wood hollowed on one side, and bound to the bowl
and each other by a narrow strip of deerskin. In smoking the
economical Indian generally cuts up a little birch wood, or
the inner bark of the poplar, and mixes it with his tobacco.
A few reindeer hairs pulled from his paska, are rolled into
a little ball, and placed in the bottom of the bowl to
prevent the contents from being drawn into the stem. A pinch
of tobacco cut as fine as snuff is inserted and two or three
whiffs are afforded by it.

The smoke is inhaled into the lungs, producing a momentary stupor and
the operation is over. A fungus which grows on decayed birch trees, or
tinder manufactured from the down of the poplar rubbed up with
charcoal is used with flint and steel for obtaining a light. Matches
are highly valued and readily purchased.