ribes the form of a cross; and, in blowing the first four
whiffs, the smoke is invariably sent in the same four directions. It is
undoubtedly void of meaning in reference to Christian worship, yet it is
a superstition, founded on ancient tradition. This tribe once lived
near the head waters of the Mississippi; and, as the early Jesuit
missionaries were energetic zealots, in the diffusion of their religious
sentiments, probably to make their faith more acceptable to the Indians,
the Roman Catholic rites were blended with the homage shown to the pipe,
which custom of offering, in the form of a cross, is still retained by
them; but as every custom is handed down by tradition merely, the true
source has been forgotten.

In every tribe in whose country I have been stationed, which comprises
nearly all the continent excepting the extreme southwestern portion,
his pipe is the Indian's constant companion through life. It is his
messenger of peace; he pledges his friends through its stem and its
bowl, and when he is dead, it has a place in his solitary grave, with
his war-club and arrows--companions on his journey to his long-fancied
beautiful hunting-grounds. The pipe of peace is a sacred thing; so held
by all Indian nations, and kept in possession of chiefs, to be smoked
only at times of peacemaking. When the terms of treaty have been agreed
upon, this sacred emblem, the stem of which is ornamented with eagle's
quills, is brought forward, and the solemn pledge to keep the peace is
passed through the sacred stem by each chief and warrior drawing the
smoke once through it. After the ceremony is over, the warriors of the
two tribes unite in the dance, with the pipe of peace held in the left
hand of the chief and in his other a rattle.

Thousands of years ago, the primitive savage of the American continent
carried masses of pipe-stone from the sacred quarry in Minnesota across
the vast wilderness of plains, to trade with the people of the far
Southwest, over the same route that long afterward became the Santa Fe
Trail; therefore, it will be consistent with the character of this work
to relate the history of the quarry from which all the tribes procured
their material for fashioning their pipes, and the curious legends
connected with it. I have met with the red sandstone pipes on the
remotest portions of the Pacific coast, and east, west, north and south,
in every tribe that it has been my fortune to know.

The word "Dakotah" mea