The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-08-02
Tobacco Pipes of the Indian


Cambridge, Mass. August 1.-Bxeept the bow and arrows, tomahawk and sealping knife nothing is more closely associated with the Indian than hls tobacco pipe; in fact one of the earlier ehroniclers has described the Indians household stun as consisting of "a tobacco pipe, wooden dish and a hatchet made of broad flint" The statement, which neglects many other things which the Indians actually pos sessed, shows how very prominent was the pipe among the Yirginian Indians whom this particular observer was describing. But it is only during recent years, In such institutions as the Peabody Museum of Harvard university and the National Mu- scum at Washington. that there has been any general opportunity to study the diff ferent kinds of pipes in which the aborig inal Indian consumed not only tobacco, but various other weeds that he made to answer the same purpose. Curiously enough the Indian never had the tobacco habit. as that term is understood nowa- days until 1t had been introduced by Eu- ropeans. Whoever examines the splendid collection of Indian pipes in the glass cases of the Peabody Museum, for exam pie, cannot fail to be struck by the fact that they were evidently intended for leisure or ceremonial moments and that no Indian could have gone about his or dinary occupations. like the civilized smoker, with his pipe in his mouth.
 The earliest Indian pipe specimens of which have been found from time to time in practically all parts of the country, was a simple tube. very much like large cigar holder. the bowl being the larger end of the tube and the mouthpiece either the smaller end or a piece of wood at- tached to it. The pipe was usually smoked with the head thrown back and the tube perpendicular thus keeping the contents from falling out. It was in such a pipe that Montezuma. according to the ancient records smoked his tobacco mixed with liquid amber at the time of the conquest of Mexico, nor has any trace been found in the ancient or neighboring Maja civ ilization of Central America of anything more clearly approximating the modern tobacco pipe. Indeed the first sign of smoking that Columbus came upon was a rough version of the cigar or cigarette that is still so much more popular than the pipe in Central America. This use of tobacco was reported to Columbus by two messengers who were sent out in His paniola. November 2, 1492. with letters to the Kahn of Cathay whom the great dis coyerer still confidently expected to find at the end of his journey. The messen- gers, Columbus himself is quoted as hay ing quoted as said, Found a great num- Der of Indians, men and women. holding In their hands little lighted brands made of herbs. of which they inhaled according to their custom.p The outer covering or wrapper, as we should now call It. of these primitive cigars was called 'tobaco," from which the name tobacco was after ward applied to the principal ingredient of the combination of herbs rolled up in side of 1t.
 Despite the many evidences that the an- cient civilization In Central America was much more highly developed than that attained by the North American Indians it was the North American Indian who carried the pipe to it's highest native evo- lution doubtless aided in some degree by intercourse with European traders and adventurers The primitive tubular pipe, judging by It's wide distribution, was smoked from one end of the continent to the other. It has been found from Wash ington 70 Massachusetts and from Texas to North Dakota Like the other Indian pipes, of which the tabular pipe is sup posed to have been the ancestor, these pipes were made from stone wood. bone, amber and metals. although the greater number were manufactured from two min erals, chlorite and steatite, which the In- dians had discovered were especially well adapted for pipe making. The material was clipped into shape and then drilled from both ends by means of a straight shaft revolving between the palms of the workmans hands or between his hand and thigh. This earliest American pipe, ac- cording to certain Indian traditions, Is often an object of reverence as the most ancient pipe of the tribe and as such it has figured prominently in some of the oldest Indian ceremonials.
 From this ancient pipe, however, 1t was a natural step for human ingenuity to evolve another that could be smoked comfortably without being kept perpen- dicular to the smoker. The different kinds of pipe that succeed the tubular were practically infinite in their varla- tions although the archaeologist has succeeded in classifying them Into one or another of about dozen different types recognizable by the interior dimensions of the bowls and stems and their pro- portions one to another Of these later varieties the most widely distributed consists of a bowl. hollowed out In many cases, by a drill working in fine sand with a small hole for the insertion of a stem. The exteriior shape of Indian pipes of this type varies from the sim- plest cube to the most complex animal form and the stems were probably held in place by lashings of wet leather which the Indian bound around both bowl and stem and then left to dry, the contraction Of the leather holding the parts firmly together In some of these pipes there are also perforations at the bases through which the owner passed a leather thong to save his pipe from being lost If he happened to drop 1t into a deep snow drift. These pipes, it Is now believed. became more and more orna- mented in proportion as the Indians be- came familiar with the use of European tools for cutting and carving their raw material. for the majority of early Colo nial descriptions mentioned only the col- or of the bowls and enter into minute de- beautiful examples of bead work, In- dian embroidery and feather ornamenta- tion. This decoration usually had a dis tinct meaning to the warrior himself although it was often simply an evidence of his squaw's personal skill in Indian art work. It was by thls decoration that the famous "calumets," or peace pipes, were immediately recognized by widely separated tribes of Indians.
 As early as 1908 John Smith speaks of a pipe large enough to beat out a mans brains, thus apparentluy describing one of the most remarkable of all types of old Indian pipes. not only on account of it's unusual size but because of the skill with which it was carved and polished without leaving any evidence of tools other than those of the aboriginal In-