Ralph Linton

“ The plants came up thickly so that they had to be thinned out. The owner of the garden would weed out the weak plants, leaving only the stronger standing. The earth about each plant was hilled up with a buffalo rib into a little hill like a corn hill. A very old man, I remember, used a big buffalo rib, sharpened on the edge, to work the soil and cultivate his tobacco. ”

“ The Mexicans and Pueblo Indians also smoked reed cigarettes in ancient times, and the Hopi form may be taken as typical. It consisted of a small reed, not over two and a half inches long, packed with powdered tobacco. A band of some fabric was usually bound around the reed, leaving a flap hanging down by which it was held. Hundreds of the charred butts of such cigarettes have been found in the prehistoric ruins of the Southwest, but they are lacking in the lower archæological levels, and the earliest inhabitants of the region were probably pipe and not cigarette smokers. ”

“ The right to plant tobacco was considered a special privilege which could be obtained only through a revelation from some supernatural being or through adoption by a person who had received such a revelation. The adopted person could, in turn, adopt others. Any person might receive such a revelation, and the society was composed of a number of divisions or chapters which derived their right to plant from different revelations and differed in their songs and in details of their ceremonies. ”

“ The Indians of the Northwest Coast chewed tobacco in ancient times, but did not smoke it. The more northern tribes may have adopted smoking from Asia by way of the Eskimo, but their pipes show little resemblance to the Asiatic forms, and they probably learned the practice from white visitors. The natives of this region are expert carvers, and nearly all their pipes are decorated with figures of men or totemic animals. ”

“ The Indians profess that the violation of such an engagement never escapes just punishment. In the heat of battle, if an adversary offer the calumet to his opponent and he accept it, the weapons on both sides are at once laid down ”

“ Straight pipes are easier to make than elbow pipes, but have certain disadvantages. They have to be directed upward in smoking to keep the tobacco from falling out of the bowl, and the tobacco dust and juices are drawn down into the stem with results familiar to all smokers. To prevent this, many tribes are said to have put a pebble or pellet of clay in the bottom of the bowl before filling it. ”

“ The elaborately decorated smoking tubes of the Mexicans, mentioned by early Spanish writers, may have been straight pipes, but many of them were probably cane cigarettes. The elbow pipe was the dominant form in the eastern United States and Great Plains, and also in eastern and southern South America. It was used to a limited extent by the prehistoric Mexicans and in southern California, and was not unknown in the Southwest. In historic times it has come into use in British Columbia and Alaska, regions in which tobacco was not originally smoked. ”

“ The calumet was employed by ambassadors and travelers as a passport; it was used in ceremonies designed to conciliate foreign and hostile nations and to conclude lasting peace; to ratify the alliance of friendly tribes; to secure favorable weather for journeys; to bring needed rain; and to attest contracts and treaties which could not be violated without incurring the wrath of the gods. The use of the calumet was inculcated by religious precept and example. A chant and a dance have become known as the chant and dance of the calumet ”

“ Early visitors to the north Atlantic Coast say that the Indians of that region used heavy carved pipes with stems three to six feet long. Large stone pipes are hardly ever found in this region, and even small carved pipes are extremely rare. It seems probable that these early forms either had quite small, plain bowls with heavy carved stems, or were made of wood or other perishable material. Holm says that the Pennsylvania Indians made their pipe bowls of horn, and several of the Algonquian tribes have made a considerable use of carved wooden pipes in historic times. ”

“ By smoking together in the calumet the contracting parties intend to invoke the sun and the other gods as witnesses of the mutual obligations assumed by the parties, and as a guaranty the one to the other that they shall be fulfilled. ”

“ The old men of the tribe who smoked each had a tobacco garden planted not very far away from our corn-fields, but5 never in the same plot with one. Tobacco gardens were planted apart, because the tobacco plants have a strong smell which affects the corn; if tobacco is planted near the corn, the growing corn-stalks turn yellow, and the corn is not so good. ”

“ The bowl is often made in the form of an animal or bird, and some of these effigies show artistic ability of a high order. Even when the style is impressionistic, the species is usually unmistakable. The significance of these carvings can only be conjectured, but so many species are shown that it seems probable that they represent the personal guardians of the pipes’ owners. None of the historic tribes used pipes of this type, and the finest examples are unquestionably pre-Columbian. ”

“ Now and then he would gently stir the pile of blossoms with a little stick, so that the whole mass might be oiled equally. When my father wanted to smoke these dried blossoms, he chopped them fine with a knife, a pipeful at a time. The blossoms were always dried in the lodge: If dried without, the sun and air took away their strength.
“About harvest time, just before frost came, the rest of the plants were gathered. He dried the plants in the lodge. ”