Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-01-07
Interesting Collection OF Prehistoric
Pines

1t is rather curious fact that from pre-
| historic times pipe smoking has been con-
fined in this hemisphere to North America,
and while there Is evidence that tobacco
was known and grown on the southern
continent 1t was used in the form Of cigars
and cigarettes and there Is no pipe left to
tell the story.
The Smithsonian has one of the most
complete collections OF prehistoric pipes on
record, and they all are from North Ameri-
ca. There are, of course, numerous pipes
scattered through the great collections Of
the National Museum and the Smithsonian
in the exhibits belonging to the various
tribes and countries, but the regular pipe
collection is all pipes and nothing else. 1t
comprises everything from the clay "du-
deem of the early colonists in Maryland
back to the stone tube pipes of the Pueblo
Indians.
There is considerable evidence that while
tobacco was known and used in this
country from the earliest agricultural times,
1t was used much more largely as cere-
monial and semi-religious performance than
as a pleasurable recreation. The result
was that many of the pipes had symbolic
forms and were made to be smoked by sew
eral people in succession Some of the big
gest pipes are made Of stone carved in the
form of men and animals and would hold a
good handful of tobacco. They evidently
were made to be smoked at rest and would
not have been a very convenient article to
carry around in the pocket.
But these big stone pipes had by no
means a monopoly Of the business. They
ranged in size from stones of Six or seven
pounds weight down to little wooden tubes
the size of cigarette holder. There were
pipes OF sandstone, serpentine. slate, clay
and of almost all the workable stones.
Some of them were well carved. Almost
all were representations of birds, beasts
or fishes. There were snake pipes, frog
and turtle pipes, pipes representing rae
coons and bob cats and other animals that
cannot be positively identified Among the
bird forms the duck seems to have been
the favorite, and Is easily distinguished by
its broad bill. Some Of the work Is ex-
cellently done, but there Is suspicion
that some of the best work was done after
the tribes had been IN contact with the
whites and had gotten better tools and
had been helped in the art Of carving
In fact some of the pipes from the mounds
of the Mississippi valley that We're for
long time taken as evidence of high
state Of civilization among the mound
builders have been proved almost beyond
question to have been made after con-
tact with the whites and the introduce
ton of iron tools. Some OF these pipes
that for time caused a deal OF discus
sion because they were made in the shape
clusIyely to have been either the work Of
or made under the influence or the old
| French Canadian trappers.
There was no end to the forms and sizes
| that the pipe might take. Some OF the
| wooden pipes are still preserved. though
| they have not stood long weathering as
| have the stone and clay pipes. Some OF
the stone pipes. on the other hand while
| they have stood the weathering OF ages
/ we'll. are Of such a class of stone that they
| evidently could not have lasted long under
| hard and constant smoking.
| But the Indians in all probability were
more moderate smokers than we OF the
/ present day, and their tobacco was evil
/ IDENTIFY not SO good and great deal more
expensive, for a small crop meant a large