of the pieces he threw into the water and the other into the fire, accompanying
the action with a diabolical noise which none but a medicine-man can make.
After which he got up perfectly satisfied with himself, although the poor patient
seemed to me anything but relieved by the violent treatment she had undergone.”
A considerable amount of superstition attaches to the calumet, or medicine-pipe,
by which all the great questions of peace and war are settled. This pipe is borne
by an individual specially selected for the honour, who, during his term of office,
is not less sacred than the pipe he carries. His seat is always on the right side of
the lodge, and no one is suffered to interpose between him and the fire. He is not
even allowed to cut his own food, but his wives cut it for him, and place it in an
official food-bowl, specially reserved for his use. As for the calumet, it is hung
outside the lodge in a large bag, which is picturesquely and gaily embroidered.
Much ceremony attends its uncovering. Whatever the weather, or the time of
year, the bearer begins by stripping off all his garments except his cloth, and he
then pours upon a red-hot coal some fragrant gum, which fills the air with
perfumed smoke. Removing the different wrappers, he fills the bowl with
tobacco, and blows the smoke to the four points of the compass, to the earth, and
to the sky, with each breath uttering a prayer to the Great Spirit for assistance in
war against all enemies, and for bison and corn from all parts. With equal
ceremony the pipe, which no woman is allowed to see, is restored to its bag. The
whole proceeding takes place in the deepest silence.
The bowl of the calumet is made of a peculiar stone, found in the Red Pipe-stone
Quarry, on the Citeau des Prairies, a place to which the following tradition
attaches. We give it as related by Mr. Catlin:
Here, he says, according to the Indian traditions, happened the mysterious birth
of the red pipe, which has blown its fumes of peace and war to the remotest
corners of the continent, which has visited every warrior, and passed through its
reddened stem the irrevocable oath of war and desolation. And here, also, the
peace-breathing calumet was born, and fringed with the eagle’s quills, which has
shed its thrilling fumes over the land, and soothed the fury of the relentless
savage.
At a remote period the Great Spirit here called the Indian nations together, and,
standing on the precipice of the red pipe-stone rock, broke from its wall a piece,