OUR TOBACCO.
The white race of people that the Klamath Indians found in this land
had a weed they called tobacco, which we call Hah-koom, and taught them
to use it by smoking it in the pipe and to cultivate it by selecting a
proper place, pile brush over the ground and then burn it, which would
leave the ground with a loose layer of wood ashes. Over this, while the
ashes were yet dry and loose, they would sow the seed and protect the
crop by putting around it a brush fence. From year to year they would
select from the best stalks seed for the next year and at times to hold
the seed for a number of years if necessary, for if kept properly it
will grow after being kept for a long time. The only thing that will
bother or destroy the crop of tobacco is the deer and they often jump
over the brush fence and eat every part of the crop, even to the roots.
When an Indian takes his pipe to smoke he inhales the smoke and keeps
it in his lungs for ten or fifteen seconds and then blows it out
through his nose mostly, some through the mouth and then he gives a
slow grunt, saying a few words in a plain audible tone. These words
are to the Wa-gas the white people we loved so well, wishing that the
Wa-gas, would give them good luck, long life, that they could see them
come back or that they themselves could go to see them and be with
them, and many other kinds of wishes for the Wa-gas. The old women
doctors use tobacco very freely and have pipes that hold a handful of
tobacco at a single smoking, and they ask the Wa-gas to give them good
luck in curing a sick person. The doctors are about the only ones of
the women that smoke. The Indians have the most complete control over
themselves and can smoke one, two or three times a day, or quit for a
week or longer without a murmur.