TOBACCO-PIPES, SMOKING AND SMOKERS.
The implements used in smoking tobacco, from the rude pipe of the
Indian to the elaborate hookah of the Turk, show a far greater variety
than even the various species of the tobacco plant. The instruments
used by the Indians for inhaling the tobacco smoke were no less
wonderful to Europeans than the plant itself.
The rude mode of inhaling the smoke and the intoxication produced by
its fumes suggested to the Spaniards a better method of "taking
tobacco." Hariot, however, found clay pipes in use by the Indians of
Virginia, which though having no resemblance to the smoking implements
discovered by Columbus, seem to have afforded a model for those
afterward manufactured by the Virginia colony. The sailors of Columbus
seemed to have first discovered cigar, rather than pipe-smoking,
inasmuch as the simple method used by the natives, consisted of a leaf
of maize, which enwrapped a few leaves of the plant.
The next instruments discovered in use among the Indians were
straight, hollow reeds and forked canes. Their mode of use was to
place a few leaves upon coals of fire and by placing the forked end in
the nostrils and the other upon the smoking leaves, to inhale the
smoke until they were stupified or drunken with the fumes. Their
object in inhaling the fumes of tobacco seemed to be to produce
intoxication and insensibility rather than a mode of enjoyment,
although the enjoyment with them consisted of seeing the most
remarkable visions when stupefied by its fumes. Such were the modes
of smoking among the Indians when Columbus planted the banner of Spain
in America.
A writer in _The Tobacco Plant_ has given a very interesting
description of Indian pipes in use among the natives of both North and
South America. He says:
"In the tumuli or Indian grave mounds of the Ohio and Scioto
valleys, large quantities of pipes have been found, bearing
traces of Indian ingenuity. That their burial mounds are of
great antiquity, is proved by the fact that trees several
centuries old are to be found growing upon them. About
twenty-five years ago, two distinguished archeologists
Squier and Davis--made extensive exploration of these
mounds, the results of which were published in an elaborate
memoir by the Smithsonian Institution. The mounds indicate
that an immense amount of labor has been expended upon them,
as the earthworks and mounds may be counted by thousands,
requiring either long time or an immense population; and
there is much probability in the supposition of Sir John
Lubbock that these parts of America were once inhabited by a
numerous and agricultural population. It may be asked, have
the races who erected these extensive mounds become extinct,
or do they exist in the poor uncivilized tribes of Indians
whom Europeans found inhabiting the river valleys of Ohio
and Illinois? Many of these mounds are in the form of
serpents and symbolic figures, and were evidently related to
the sacrificial worship of the mound builders."
Squier and Davis are of the opinion that:--
"The mound builders were inveterate smokers, if the great
numbers of pipes discovered in the mounds be admitted as
evidence of the fact. These constitute not only a numerous,
but a singularly interesting class of remains. In their
construction the skill of the maker seems to have been
exhausted. Their general form, which may be regarded as the
primitive form of the implement, is well exhibited in the
accompanying sketch. They are always carved from a single
piece, and consist of a flat carved bore of variable length
and width, with the bowl rising from the centre of the
convex side. From one of the ends, and communicating with
the hollow of the bowl, is drilled a small hole, which
answers the purpose of a tube; the corresponding opposite
division being left for the manifest purpose of holding the
implement to the mouth.
"The specimen here represented is finely carved from a
beautiful variety of brown porphyry, granulated with
various-colored materials, the whole much changed by the
action of fire, and somewhat resembling porcelain. It is
intensely hard, and successfully resists the edge of the
finest-tempered knife. The length of the base is five
inches; breadth of the same one inch and a-quarter. The bowl
is one inch and a-quarter high, slightly tapering upwards,
but flaring near the top. The hollow of the bowl is
six-tenths of an inch in diameter. The perforation answering
to the tube is one-sixth of an inch in diameter, which is
about the usual size. This circumstance places it beyond
doubt that the mouth was applied directly to the implement,
without the intervention of a tube of wood or metal."
[Illustration: Indian pipe.]
This is an account of a simple pipe, with a small bowl; but most of
the pipes found in the mounds are highly ornamented with elaborate
workmanship, representing animals such as the beaver, otter, bear,
wolf, panther, raccoon, squirrel, wild-cat, manotee, eagle, hawk,
heron, swallow, paroquet, etc. One of the most interesting of the
spirited sculptures of animal forms to be found on the mound pipes, is
the representation of the Lamantin, or Manotee, a cetacean found only
in tropical waters, and the nearest place which they at present
frequent is the coast of Florida--at least a thousand miles away.
According to Sir John Lubbock, these are no rude sculptures, for the
characteristics of the animal are all distinctly marked, rendering its
recognition complete. Many modern Indians are possessed of a wonderful
aptitude for sculpture, and they appear to gladly exchange their work
for the necessaries of life.
The material most prized for the purpose of pipe-making is the
beautiful red pipe-stone of the Coteau des Prairies, which is an
indurated aluminous stone, highly colored with red oxide of iron. It
is frequently called "Catlinite," out of compliment to George Catlin,
the distinguished collector of Indian traditions, who claims to be the
first European that ever visited the Red Pipe-stone Quarry, which is
situated amongst the upper waters of Missouri. Catlin gives the
following legend as the Indian version of the birth of the mysterious
red pipe:--
"The Great Spirit, at an ancient period, here called
together the Indian warriors, and standing on the precipice
of the red pipe-stone rock, broke from its wall a piece, and
made a huge pipe by turning it in his hand, which he smoked
over them, and to the north, the south, the east and the
west; and told them that this stone was red, that it was
their flesh, that they must use it for their pipes of peace,
that it belonged to them all, and that the war club and the
scalping knife must not be raised on its ground. At the last
whiff of his pipe his head went into a great cloud, and the
whole surface of the rock for several miles was melted and
glazed. Two great ovens were opened beneath, and two women,
guardian spirits of the place, entered them in a blaze of
fire, and they are heard there yet, answering to the
invocations of the priests and medicine-men."
At the pipe-stone quarry there is a row of five huge, granite
boulders, which the Indians regard with great reverence, and when they
visit the spot to secure some red stone to make pipes, they seek to
propitiate the guardian spirits by throwing plugs of Tobacco to them.
Some admirable pieces of pipe-sculpture are produced by the Boheen
Indians, who are found on the coast of the Pacific to the south of the
Russians. These pipes are made from a soft blue clay stone which is
found only in slabs, and the sculptures are wrought on both sides, the
pipes being generally covered with singular groups of human and animal
forms, grotesquely intermingled.
The Chippewas are also celebrated for their pipes, which are cut out
of a close-grained stone of a dark color; and Professor Wilson, of
Toronto, states that Pobahmesad, or the Flier, one of the famed
pipe-sculptors, resides on the Great Manitoulin Island in Lake Huron.
The old Chippewa has never deviated from the faith of his fathers, as
he still adheres to all their rites and ceremonies. He uses the red
pipe-stone and other materials in the production of his pipes, which
are ingenious specimens of sculpture. The calumet, or pipe of peace,
is still an object of special reverence with the Indian tribes, and
the pipe-stem is ornamented with six or eight eagle's feathers. Each
tribe has an official who takes charge of the calumet, which he keeps
rolled up in a bearskin robe; and it's never exposed to view or used,
except when the chief enters into a treaty with some neighboring
chief. On these occasions the pipe is taken out of its covering by the
Indian dignitary, ready charged with the "holy weed," when it is
smoked by all the chiefs, each one taking only a single breath of
smoke, which is regarded as implementing the treaty. The pipe is then
rolled up in its robe of fur, and stowed away in the lodge of its
keeper until it is again required. The war pipe is simply a tomahawk,
with a perforated handle communicating with the bowl, which is
opposite the sharp edge of the weapon. When the Indians joined the
British as allies during the American war, they had to be supplied
with iron tomahawks of the native pattern, before they could enter the
field as allies.
[Illustration: Sculptured pipe.]
Many tribes of Indians use herbs of various kinds to mix with tobacco
to reduce its strength, as they are in the habit of exhaling the smoke
from the nostrils, and not from the mouth. By the adoption of this
means a much smaller quantity of tobacco suffices to produce the
soothing influence on the nervous system so well known to votaries of
the weed.
Longfellow, in his great Indian epic of the Song of Hiawatha, has
portrayed with graphic power in pleasing verse the mysterious legends
describing the birth or institution of the peace-pipe by Gitche
Manito, "The Master of Life;" and a few extracts from "Hiawatha" may
be interesting to illustrate the deep significance of the ideas which
the Indian holds regarding his relations to the Great Spirit of the
Universe, and of the esteem with which he views the peace-pipe, which
in the words of Catlin "has shed its thrilling fumes over the land,
and soothed the fury of the relentless savage."
Longfellow, in the opening of his poem, says:--
Ye whose hearts are fresh and simple,
Who have faith in God and Nature,
Who believe that in all ages
Every human heart is human,
That in even savage bosoms
There are longings, yearnings, strivings,
For the good they comprehend not,
That the feeble hands and helpless,
Groping blindly in the darkness,
Touch God's right hand in that darkness
And are lifted up and strengthened;--
Listen to this simple story,
To the song of Hiawatha.
He then describes the making of the pipe from the great Red Pipe-Stone
Quarry, as follows:--
"On the Mountains of the Prairie,
On the great Red Pipe-Stone Quarry,
Gitche Manito, the mighty,
He the Master of Life, descending,
On the red crags of the quarry
Stood erect, and called the nations,
Called the tribes of men together.
From his foot-prints flowed a river,
Leaped into the light of morning,
O'er the precipice plunging downward
Gleamed like Ishkoodah, the comet.
And the Spirit stooping earthward,
With his finger on the meadow
Traced a winding pathway for it,
Saying to it, 'Run in this way!'
"From the red stone of the quarry
With his hand he broke a fragment,
Moulded it into a pipe-head,
Shaped and fashioned it with figures;
From the margin of the river
Took a long reed for a pipe-stem,
With its dark green leaves upon it;
Filled the pipe with bark of willow;
With the bark of the red willow;
Breathed upon the neighboring forest,
Made its great boughs chafe together,
Till in flame they burst and kindled;
And erect upon the mountains,
Gitche Manito, the mighty,
Smoked the calumet, the Peace-Pipe,
As a signal to the nations."
[Illustration: Pipe of Peace.]
The next verses describe the assembling of the nations at the call of
Gitche Manito, who proceeds to speak to his children words of wisdom
and announces that he:
"'Will send a prophet to you,
A Deliverer of the nations,
Who shall guide you and shall teach you,
Who shall toil and suffer with you.
So you listen to his counsels,
You will multiply and prosper;
If his warnings pass unheeded,
You will fade away and perish!
"'Bathe now in the stream before you,
Wash the war-paint from your faces,
Wash the blood-stains from your fingers,
Bury your war-clubs and your weapons,
Break the red stone from this quarry,
Mould and make it into Peace-Pipes,
Take the reeds that grow beside you,
Deck them with your highest feathers,
Smoke the calumet together,
And as brothers live henceforward!'
* * * * *
"And in silence all the warriors
Broke the red stone of the quarry,
Smoothed and formed it into Peace-Pipes,
Broke the long reeds by the river,
Decked them with their brightest feathers,
And departed each one homeward,
While the Master of Life, ascending
Through the opening of cloud curtains,
Through the doorways of the heavens,
Vanished from before their faces,
In the smoke that rolled around him,
The Pukwana of the Peace-Pipe!"
Along the northern parts of America, are to be found the Esquimaux
population, estimated to number about 60,000.
They are votaries of the weed, making their pipes either out of
driftwood, or of the bones of animals they have used for food.
Tobacco is found growing along the whole western sea-board of South
America until we reach the northern boundaries of Patagonia. Far
inland on the banks of the Amazon, Rio Niger, and other great rivers,
the weed has been found in luxurious abundance, with a delightful
fragrance.
Stephens, in his "Travels in Central America," says that
"the ladies of Central America generally smoke--the married
using tobacco, and the unmarried, cigars formed of selected
tobacco rolled in paper or rice straw. Every gentleman
carries in his pocket a silver case, with a long string of
cotton, steel and flint, and one of the offices of gallantry
is to strike a light. By doing it well, he may help to
kindle a flame in a lady's heart; at all events, to do it
bunglingly would be ill-bred. I will not express my
sentiments on smoking as a custom for the sex. I have
recollections of beauteous lips profaned. Nevertheless, even
in this I have seen a lady show her prettiness and
refinement, barely touching the straw on her lips, as it
were kissing it gently and taking it away. When a gentleman
asks a lady for a light, she always removes the cigar from
her lips."
The Rev. Canon Kingsley, in his fascinating novel of "Westward Ho!"
has some quaint remarks on the method of smoking described by Lionel
Wafer, surgeon to Dampier, which are well worth quoting. He says,
"When they, (the Darien Indians,) will deliberate on war or
policy, they sit round in the hut of the chief; where being
placed, enter to them a small boy with a cigarro of the
bigness of a rolling-pin, and puffs the smoke thereof into
the face of each warrior, from the eldest to the youngest;
while they, putting their hands funnel-wise round their
mouths, draw into the sinuosities of the brain that more
than Delphic vapor of prophecy; which boy presently falls
down in a swoon, and being dragged out by the heels and laid
by to sober, enter another to puff at the sacred cigarro,
till he is dragged out likewise, and so on till the Tobacco
is finished, and the seed of wisdom has sprouted in every
soul into the tree of meditation, bearing the flower of
eloquence, and in due time the fruit of valiant action."
[Illustration: A Model Cigar.]
Tobacco in the form of cigarettes, is extensively used by the
inhabitants of Nicaragua, Guiana, and the dwellers on the banks of the
Orinoco, and the use of the weed is not confined to the male sex, but
is freely used both by the female and juvenile portions of the
community. Mr. Squier, in his "Travels in Nicaragua," states that the
dress of the young urchins consists mainly of a straw hat and a
cigar--the cigar when not in use being stuck behind the ear, in the
manner in which our clerks place their pens. The natives of Guiana use
a tube or pipe not unlike a cheroot, made from the rind of the fruit
of a species of palm. This curious pipe is called a "Winna," and the
hollow is filled with tobacco, the smoking of which affords much
enjoyment to the denizens of the swampy regions of Guiana.
Mr. Cooke, in "The Seven Sisters of Sleep," states that a tube much
resembling the "Winna" of Guiana was some years ago to be met with in
the Tobacconists' Shops in London. The Indian dwelling in the dense
forests in the region of Orinoco has found that tobacco is an
excellent solace to relieve the monotony of his life; he uses it "not
only to procure an afternoon nap, but also to induce a state of
quiescence which they call dreaming with their eyes open." We find
from voyagers up the Amazon, that smoking prevails not merely amongst
the natives inhabiting the regions which skirt that great river, but
also amongst the people on the banks of its numerous tributaries. Mr.
Bates the distinguished Naturalist, when making researches far up one
of the tributaries of the Amazon, found tobacco extensively
cultivated, and some distinguished makers of cigarettes. One maker,
Joan Trinidade, was noted for his Tobacco and Tauri cigarettes. This
cigar is so named from the bark in which the tobacco is rolled. Some
of the tribes inhabiting the district of the lower Amazon indulge in
snuff-taking. This snuff is not made from tobacco, it is the produce
of a plant of the leguminous order, the seeds being carefully
collected and thoroughly dried in the sun before they are pounded in a
mortar, when the powder is ready for use. The snuff-making season is
quite an event in a Brazilian village, the week or so during which it
lasts forming a kind of religious festival mingled with a good deal of
indulgence of fermented liquors, chiefly of native origin.
Humboldt, when traveling in South America, found in use among the
Ottomac Indians a powder called Niopo, or "Indian snuff." Niopo is a
powerful stimulant, a small portion of it producing violent sneezing
in persons unaccustomed to its use. Father Gumilla says:--"This
diabolical powder of the Ottomacs, furnished by an adolescent tobacco
plant, intoxicates them through the nostrils, deprives them of reason
for some hours, and renders them furious in battle." Humboldt,
however, has shown that this stimulating snuff is not the product of
the tobacco plant, but of a species of acacia, Niopo being made from
the pods of the plant after they have undergone a process of
fermentation. Captain Burton, when traveling in the Highlands of
Brazil, found the tobacco plant growing spontaneously, which made him
conclude that it is indigenous to Brazil. He found the "Aromatic
Brazilian" a kind of tobacco with thin leaves and a pink flower, which
is "much admired in the United States, and there found to lose its
aroma after the second year." It is usually asserted that the tobacco
grown in Brazil contains only two per cent. of nicotine, but Captain
Burton is disposed to doubt this, as he states that some varieties of
the "holy herb" grown at Sa'a' Paulo and Nimos suggests a larger
proportion. In the small towns in the Highlands of Brazil, Captain
Burton found that excellent cigars, better than many "Havannas," were
retailed at a halfpenny each. In La Plata, Paraguay, and other
countries to the south of Brazil, nearly every person smokes, and an
American traveler quoted by Mr. Cooke states that women and girls
above thirteen years of age use the weed in the form of quids. A
magnificent Hebe, arrayed in satin and flashing in diamonds, "puts you
back with one delicate hand, while with the fair taper fingers of the
other she takes the tobacco out of her mouth previous to your saluting
her." A European visiting Paraguay for the first time is rather
astonished at the conduct of the fair beauty, but such is the force of
custom that the squeamishness of the new-comer is soon overcome, when
he finds that he has to kiss every lady to whom he is introduced; and
the traveler says that "one half of those you meet are really tempting
enough to render you reckless of consequences."
Smoking is practised by the natives of Patagonia, who are a tall and
muscular class of men, though not such giants as represented by the
early voyagers. Hutchinson, in a valuable paper on the Indians of
South America has an account of the Pehuenches, one of the principal
tribes of Patagonia, in which he states that "their chief indulgence
is smoking. The native pipes are fabricated out of a piece of stone,
fashioned into the shape of a bowl, into which is inserted a long
brass tube. The latter is obtained by barter at Bohia Blanca. The
tobacco in the bowl being lighted, each man of a party takes a suck at
the pipe in his turn." Tilston, who witnessed the operation, describes
it as a most ludicrous one.
"The smoker gives a pull at the pipe,
gulping in a quantity of Tobacco vapour, the cubic
measurement of which my informant would be afraid to guess
at. All the muscles of the body seem in a temporary
convulsion whilst it is being taken in, and the neighbour to
whom the pipe is transferred follows suit by inhaling as if
he were trying to swallow down brass tube, bowl, Tobacco,
fire, and all. Meanwhile, there issues from the nose and
mouth of the previous smoker such a cumulus of cloud as for
a few seconds to render his face quite invisible."
Tobacco is
more used in Chili than in the other countries on the Pacific side of
South America; this is owing to the extensive use of the leaves of the
Cocoa plant as a narcotic by the natives of Bolivia, Peru, and
Colombia.
[Illustration: South Americans smoking.]
We refrain from enlarging on the nature and use of this narcotic, as
on some future occasion we may take an opportunity of making some
observations on Cocoa, which according to Jonson, holds an undisputed
sway over some seven or eight millions of the inhabitants of South
America. The Indians formerly inhabiting the high table-lands of what
is now called Peru and Bolivia appear prior to the invasion of the
Spaniards to have been much further advanced in civilization than the
races occupying the other portions of South America; and there is a
strong probability that they are of a different origin from the races
occupying Chili, Patagonia, Brazil, and the great district washed by
the waters of the West Indian Sea. Science as yet cannot give anything
like an accurate idea of the time man has existed in these
widely-diversified countries, but we cannot go wrong in accepting the
statement of Darwin, who observes that
"we must admit that man has
inhabited South America for an immensely long period,
inasmuch as any change in climate, effected by the elevation
of the land must have been extremely gradual."
Another writer says of the pipes of the Indians of North America:
"Great variety of form and material distinguishes the pipes
of the modern Indians; arising in part from the local
facilities they possess for a suitable material from which
to construct them; and in part also from the special style
of art and decoration which has become the traditional usage
of the tribes. The favorite red pipe-stone of the Coteau des
Prairies, has been generally sought after, both from its
easiness of working and the beauty of its appearance. A pipe
of this favorite and beautiful material, found on the shores
of Lake Simcoe, and now in my possession, measures five
inches and three-quarters in length, and nearly four inches
in greatest breadth, yet the capacity of the bowl hollowed
in it for the reception of tobacco is even less than in the
smallest of the "Elfin Pipes." In contrast to this, a modern
Winnebago pipe recently acquired by me, made of the same red
pipe-stone, inlaid with lead, and executed with ingenious
skill, has a bowl of large dimensions illustrative of Indian
smoking usages modified by the influence of the white man.
From the red pipe-stone, as well as from the lime stone and
other harder rocks, the Chippeways, the Winnebagos, and the
Sioux, frequently make a peculiar class of pipes, inlaid
with lead.
"The Chincok and Puget Sound Indians, who evince little
taste in comparison with the tribes surrounding them, in
ornamenting their persons or their warlike and domestic
implements, commonly use wooden pipes. Sometimes these are
elaborately carved, but most frequently they are rudely and
hastily made for immediate use; and even among these remote
tribes of the flat head Indians, the common clay pipe of the
fur trader begins to supersede such native arts. Among the
Assinaboin Indians a material is used in pipe manufacture
altogether peculiar to them. It is a fine marble, much too
hard to admit of minute carving, but taking a high polish.
This is cut into pipes of graceful form, and made so
extremely thin, as to be almost transparent, so that when
lighted the glowing tobacco shines through, and presents a
singular appearance when in use at night or in a dark lodge.
Another favorite material employed by the Assinaboin Indians
is a coarse species of jasper also too hard to admit of
elaborate ornamentation."
This also is cut into various simple but tasteful designs, executed
chiefly by the slow and laborious process of rubbing it down with
other stones. The choice of the material for fashioning the favorite
pipe is by no means invariably guided by the facilities which the
location of the tribe affords. A suitable stone for such a purpose
will be picked up and carried hundreds of miles. Mr. Kane informs me
that, in coming down the Athabaska River, when drawing near its source
in the Rocky Mountains, he observed his Assinaboin guides select the
favorite bluish jasper from among the water-worn stones in the bed of
the river, to carry home for the purpose of pipe manufacture, although
they were then fully five hundred miles from their lodges. Such a
traditional adherence to a choice of material peculiar to a remote
source, may frequently prove of considerable value as a clue to former
migrations of the tribes. Both the Cree and the Winnebago Indians
carve pipes in stone of a form now more frequently met with in the
Indian curiosity stores of Canada and the States than any other
specimens of native carving. The tube, cut at a sharp right angle with
the cylindrical bowl of the pipe, is ornamented with a thin vandyked
ridge, generally perforated with a row of holes, and standing up
somewhat like the dorsal fin of a fish. The Winnebagos also
manufacture pipes of the same form, but of a smaller size, in lead,
with considerable skill.
Among the Cree Indians a double pipe is occasionally in use,
consisting of a bowl carved out of stone without much attempt at
ornament, but with perforations on two sides, so that two smokers can
insert their pipe-stems at once, and enjoy the same supply of tobacco.
It does not appear, however, that any special significance is attached
to this singular fancy. The Saultaux Indians, a branch of the great
Algonquin nation, also carve their pipes out of a black stone found in
their country, and evince considerable skill in the execution of their
elaborate details. But the most remarkable of all the specimens of
pipe sculpture executed by the Indians of the north-west are those
carved by the Bobeen, or Big-lip Indians,--so called from the singular
deformity they produce by inserting a piece of wood into a slit made
in the lower lip.
The Bobeen Indians are found along the Pacific coast, about latitude
54°, 40', and extend from the borders of the Russian dominions
eastward nearly to Frazer River. The pipes of the Bobeen, and also of
the Clalam Indians, occupying the neighboring Vancouver's Island, are
carved with the utmost elaborateness and in the most singular and
grotesque devices, from a soft blue clay-stone or slate. Their form is
in part determined by the material, which is only procurable in thin
slabs, so that the sculptures, wrought on both sides, present a sort
of double bas-relief. From this, singular and grotesque groups are
carved without any apparent reference to the final destination of the
whole as a pipe. The lower side is generally a straight line, and in
the specimens I have examined they measure from two or three to
fifteen inches long; so that in these the pipe-stem is included. A
small hollow is carved out of some protruding ornament to serve as the
bowl of the pipe, and from the further end a perforation is drilled to
connect with this. The only addition made to it when in use is the
insertion of a quill or straw as a mouth-piece. The Indians have both
war and peace pipes.
The War pipe is a true tomahawk of ordinary size with a perforated
handle the tobacco being placed in the receptacle above the hatchet
the handle serving as a pipe-stem and used for either pipe or
tomahawk. Many varieties of Indian Pipes have been found not only in
the Western and Southern mounds but in Mexico and Central America.
Fine specimens are found in Florida and some elaborately carved have
been unearthed in Virginia. Wilson says of the pipes used by the
Indians: "The pipe stem is one of the characteristics of modern race,
if not distinctive of the Northern tribes of Indians." In alluding to
the pipes more particularly he says:
"Specimens of another class of
clay pipes of a larger size, and with a tube of such length
as obviously to be designed for use without the addition of
a "pipe-stem,"
most of the ancient clay pipes that have been
discovered are stated to have the same form; and this, it may be
noted, bears so near a resemblance to that of the red clay pipe used
in modern Turkey, with the cherry-tree pipe stem, that it might be
supposed to have furnished the model.
[Illustration: A war pipe.]
The bowls of this class of ancient clay pipes are not of the miniature
proportions which induce a comparison between those of Canada and the
early examples found in Britain; neither do the stone pipe-heads of
the mound-builders suggest by the size of the bowl either the
self-denying economy of the ancient smoker, or his practice of the
modern Indian mode of exhaling the fumes of the tobacco, by which so
small a quantity suffices to produce the full narcotic effects of the
favorite weed. They would rather seem to confirm the indications
derived from the other sources, of an essential difference between the
ancient smoking usages of Central America and of the mound-builders,
and those which are still maintained in their primeval integrity
among the Indians of the North West.
Of the mound-builders Foster says:
"The mound-builders were well aware of the narcotic
properties of tobacco, a plant which indigenous to America,
and which since the discovery of the western continent has
been domesticated in every region of the earth where the
soil and climate are favorable to its cultivation. No habit
at this day, it may be said, is more universal or more
difficult to eradicate than that of smoking. With the
mound-builder tobacco was the greatest of luxuries; his
solace in his hours of relaxations, and the choicest
offering he could dedicate to the Great Spirit. Upon his
pipe he lavished all the skill he possessed, in the
lapidary's art.
"From the red stone of the quarry
With his hand he broke a fragment
Moulded it into a pipe head
Shaped and fashioned it with figures."
Many of these pipes are sculptured from the most obdurate stones and
display great delicacy of workmanship. The features of animals are so
truthfully cut that often there is no difficulty in their
identification, and even the plumage of birds is delineated by curved
or straight lines which show a close adherence to nature. The bowl and
stem piece wrought from a single block, are as accurately drilled as
they could be at this day, by the lapidary's art. Both the War pipe
and Peace pipe are the most sacred and the most highly valued of all
the various kinds.
[Illustration: Peace pipe.]
"The calumet, or pipe of peace, ornamented with the war
eagles quill, is a sacred pipe, and never used on any other
occasion than that of peace making, when the chief brings it
into treaty, and unfolding the many bandages which are
carefully kept around it, has it ready to be mutually smoked
by the chiefs, after the terms of the treaty are agreed
upon, as the means of solemnizing it; which is done by
passing the sacred stem to each chief, who draws one breath
of smoke only through it. Nothing can be more binding than
smoking the pipe of peace and is considered by them to be an
inviolable pledge. There is no custom more uniformly in
constant use amongst the poor Indians than that of smoking
nor any more highly valued. His pipe is his constant
companion through life--his messenger of peace; he pledges
his friends through its stem and its bowl, and when its
care-drowning fumes cease to flow, it takes a place with him
in his solitary grave with his tomahawk and war-club
companions to his long-fancied 'happy hunting grounds.'"
From specimens of clay pipes found at the South from Virginia to
Florida it would seem that the Indians had a great variety of pipes
some of which were beautifully carved while others are perfectly
plain. Many of them however are of rude workmanship and might have
been fashioned by some of the tribe unacquainted with pipe-making.
Dall gives the following account of smoking among the natives of
Alaska:
We broke camp about five o'clock in the morning. Nothing
occurred to break the monotony of constant steady plodding.
Two Indians in the bow of the boat would row until tired,
and then we would stop for a few minutes to rest, and let
them smoke. The last operation takes less than a minute;
their pipes are so constructed as to hold but a very small
pinch of tobacco. The bowl, with ears for tying it to the
stem is generally cast out of lead. Sometimes it is made of
soft stone, bone or even hard wood. The stem is made of two
pieces of wood hollowed on one side, and bound to the bowl
and each other by a narrow strip of deerskin. In smoking the
economical Indian generally cuts up a little birch wood, or
the inner bark of the poplar, and mixes it with his tobacco.
A few reindeer hairs pulled from his paska, are rolled into
a little ball, and placed in the bottom of the bowl to
prevent the contents from being drawn into the stem. A pinch
of tobacco cut as fine as snuff is inserted and two or three
whiffs are afforded by it.
The smoke is inhaled into the lungs, producing a momentary stupor and
the operation is over. A fungus which grows on decayed birch trees, or
tinder manufactured from the down of the poplar rubbed up with
charcoal is used with flint and steel for obtaining a light. Matches
are highly valued and readily purchased. The effect of the Circassian
tobacco on the lungs is extremely bad, and among those tribes who use
it many die from asthma and congestion of the lungs. This is
principally due to the saltpetre with which it is impregnated. The
Indian pipe is copied from the Eskimo, as the latter were the first to
obtain and use tobacco. Many of the tribes call it by the Eskimo name.
The Kutchin and Eastern Finneh were modeled after the clay pipes of
the Hudson Bay Company, but they also carve very pretty ones out of
birch knots and the root of the wild rose-bush. The Chukchees use a
pipe similar to those of the Eskimo, but with a much larger and
shorter stem. This stem is hollow, and is filled with fine birch
shavings. After smoking for some months these shavings impregnated
with the oil of tobacco, are taken out through an opening in the lower
part of the stem and smoked over. The Hudson Baymen make passable
pipe-stems by taking a straight-grained piece of willow or spruce
without knots, and cutting through the outer layers of bark and wood.
This stick is heated in the ashes and by twisting the end in contrary
directions the heart-wood may be gradually drawn out, leaving a hollow
tube.
The Kutchin make pretty pipe-stems out of goose-quills wound about
with porcupine-quills. It is the custom in the English forts to make
every Indian who comes to trade, a present of a clay pipe filled with
tobacco. We were provided with cheap brown ones, with wooden stems,
which were much liked by the natives, and it is probable that small
brier-wood pipes, which are not liable to break, would form an
acceptable addition to any stock of trading goods". The Tchuktchi of
north-eastern Asia are devoted worshipers of tobacco, and is one of
the chief articles of trade with them. Their pipes are large, much
larger at the stem than the bowl. In smoking, they swallow the fumes
of the tobacco which causes intoxication for a time. "The desire to
procure a few of its narcotic leaves induces the American Esquimaux
from the Ice Cape to Bristol Bay, to send their produce from hand to
hand as far as the Guosden Islands in Behrings Straits, where it is
bartered for the tobacco of the Tchuktchi, and there again principally
resort to the fair of Ostrownoje to purchase tobacco from the
Russians. Generally the Tchuktchi receive from the Americans as money
skins for half a pond, or eighteen pounds of tobacco leaves as they
afterwards sell to the Russians for two ponds of tobacco of the same
quality.
[Illustration: A Tchuktchi pipe.]
The Russians also are great lovers of the weed. A writer says:--
"Everybody smokes, men, women, and children. They smoke
Turkish tobacco, rolled in silk paper--seldom cigars or
pipes. These rolls are called parporos. The ladies almost
all smoke, but they smoke the small, delicate sizes of
parporos, while the gentlemen smoke larger ones. Always at
morning, noon and night, comes the inevitable box of
parporos, and everybody at the table smokes and drinks their
coffee at the same time. On the cars are fixed little cups
for cigar ashes in every seat. Ladies frequently take out
their part parporos, and hand them to the gentlemen with a
pretty invitation to smoke. Instead of having a smoking car
as we do, they have a car for those who are so 'pokey' as
not to smoke."
Throughout the German States the custom of smoking is universal and
tobacco enters largely into their list of expenditures. A writer says
of smoking in Austria:--
"We have been rather surprised to find so few persons
smoking pipes in Austria. Indeed, a pipe is seldom seen
except among the laboring classes. The most favorite mode of
using the weed here is in cigarettes, almost every gentleman
being provided with a silver box, in which they have Turkish
tobacco and small slips of paper, with mucilage on them
ready for rolling. They make them as they use them, and are
very expert in the handling of the tobacco. The chewing of
tobacco is universally repudiated, being regarded as the
height of vulgarity. The Turkish tobacco is of fine flavor,
and commands high prices. It is very much in appearance like
the fine cut chewing tobacco so extensively used at home."
The cigars made by the Austrian Government, which are the only
description to be had are very inferior, and it is not to be wondered
that the cigarette is so generally used in preference.
The smoking of cigarettes by the ladies is quite common, especially
among the higher classes. In no part of the world is smoking so common
as in South America; here all classes and all ages use the weed.
Smoking is encouraged in the family and the children are early taught
the custom. A traveler who has observed this custom more particularly
than any other, says of the use of tobacco in Peru:--
"Scarcely in any regions of the world is smoking so common
as in Peru. The rich as well as the poor, the old man as
well as the boy, the master as well as the servant, the lady
as well as the negroes who wait on her, the young maiden as
well as the mother--all smoke and never cease smoking,
except when eating, or sleeping, or in church. Social
distinctions are as numerous and as marked in Peru as
anywhere else, and there is the most exclusive pride of
color and of blood. But differences of color and of rank are
wholly disregarded when a light for a cigar is requested, a
favor which it is not considered a liberty to ask, and which
it would be deemed a gross act of incivility to refuse. It
is chiefly cigarritos which are smoked.
"The cigarrito, as is well known, is tobacco cut fine and
dexterously wrapped in moist maize leaves, in paper, or in
straw. Only the laborers on the plantations smoke small clay
pipes. Dearer than the cigarritos are the cigars, which are
not inferior to the best Havanna. Everywhere are met the
cigarrito-twisters. Cleverly though they manipulate,
cleanliness is not their besetting weakness. But in Peru,
and in other parts of South America, cleanliness is not held
in more esteem than in Portugal and Spain."
The Turks have long been noted as among the largest consumers of
tobacco as well as using the most magnificent of smoking implements.
The hookah is in all respects the most expensive and elaborate machine
(for so it may be called) used for smoking tobacco. A traveler gives
the following graphic description of smoking among them:
[Illustration: Turk smoking.]
"As each man smokes only out of his own pipe, it is not
surprising that this instrument is an indispensable
accompaniment of every person of rank. Men of the higher
classes keep two or three servants to attend to their pipes.
While one looks after things at home, the other has to
accompany his master in his walks and rides. The long stem
is on such occasions packed in a finely embroidered cloth
cover, while the bowl, tobacco, and other accessories are
carried by the servant in a pouch at his side. A stranger in
Constantinople will often regard with curiosity and
surprise, a proud Osmanli on foot or horseback, followed by
an attendant who, through the long, carefully-packed
instrument which he carries, gives one the idea that he is a
weapon-bearer of some heroic period following his lord to
some dangerous rendezvous. So are the times altered. What
the armor-bearer was for the warlike races of old, such is
the tchbukdi for their degenerate descendants.
"To smoke from sixty to eighty pipes a day is by no means
uncommon; for whatever be the business, no matter how
serious, in which the Turk is engaged, he must smoke at it.
In the divan, where the grandees of the empire consult
together on the most delicate affairs of State, the question
was once mooted whether the tchbukdes should not be excluded
from such debates as were of a strictly private nature.
There was a great diversity of opinion on the subject.
Politics and reason were on opposite sides. At last it was
decided that they would not disgrace an ancient national
usage, but would allow the harmless attendants to enter the
council-room every now and then to change the pipes. In
Turkey, pipes and tobacco afford means of distinguishing not
only the different classes of the community, but even the
several graduates of rank in the same class. A mushir
(marshal) would find it derogatory to his dignity to smoke
out of a stem less than two yards in length. The artisan or
official of a lower rank, would consider it highly
unbecoming on his part to use one which exceeded the proper
proportions of his class. A superior stretches his pipe
before him to his inferior; while the latter must hold his
modestly on one side, only allowing the end of the
mouth-piece to peep out of his closed fist.
"The pasha has the right to puff out his smoke before him
like a steam engine, while his inferiors are only allowed to
breathe forth a light curl of smoke, and that must be let
off backwards. Not to smoke at all in the presence of a
superior, is held the most delicate homage which can be paid
him. A son, for instance, acts in this manner in the
presence of his father, and only such a one is considered to
be well brought up who declines to smoke even after his
father has repeatedly invited him to do so. The fair sex in
the East is scarcely less addicted to the use of this weed.
"The girl of twelve years old smokes a cigarette of the
thickness of pack-thread. When she has attained her
fourteenth or fifteenth year, and is already marriageable,
she is allowed to indulge her penchant at will, which is
forbidden when younger. After this age the diameter of the
cigarette increases year by year; and when a lady has
reached the mature age of twenty-four, no one sees anything
remarkable in her smoking a modest little chibouque as she
sits on the lower divan of the harem. Elderly matrons--and
in Turkey every lady is an elderly matron in her fortieth
year--are passionately devoted to this enjoyment. The
pipe-bowls and stems always remain of the size appropriated
by etiquette to the use of the harem; but the strongest and
most pungent sorts of tobacco are not unseldom smoked, until
the mouth, which, according to the assurance of the poet, in
the bloom of its youth breathed forth ambergiris and musk,
in its fortieth year acquires so strong a smell that the
lady can be scented from a distance.
"Like their lords, the hanyrus of rank have also their
tchbukdes, of course of their own sex, who accompany them
when out walking or on a visit. In this case, however, the
cover in which the pipe-stem is made, not of cloth, but of
silk. The habit of refreshing oneself with a pipe on some
elevated spot which commands a fine view, is common to both
sexes. Men can indulge this taste whenever their fancy may
suggest, but ladies only in retired spots; for, whenever a
Turkish fair one removes the yas mak (veil) from her lips,
as she does to smoke, all around her must be harem (sacred).
"Sometimes an eunuch stands guard at a little distance off,
and if a stranger of the male sex approaches, gives a
signal; the pipe is held aside, while the mouth is kept
covered by the veil, until the unexpected Acteon has passed
by. But where the pipe plays the most important part is in
the bath. It is well known that the Turkish ladies are
accustomed to frequent the hommams assiduously, and to
remain there for hours together. They enter the bath about
eight o'clock in the morning; take their midday meal there,
and return home between three and four in the afternoon.
During these hours of leisure, the most agreeable in a
Mohammedan woman's life, the pipe is their constant
resource. In the middle of the warmest room is a round
terrace-like elevation, called Gobek-tosh.
"Here are clustered old and young, the snow white daughters
of Circassia and the coal-black beauties of Soudan, and
beguile the hours with never ending gossip, while around
them rise the dense fumes of their pipes. Now one of the
elders of the party tells a story, now a learned lady holds
a discourse on religion, or extols the beauty and virtue of
'Aisha Fatima.'"
The Fairy, or Dane's pipe is the most ancient form of the tobacco pipe
used in Great Britain and of about the same size as the "Elfin pipes"
of the Scottish peasantry. A great variety of pipes both in form and
size have been found in the British Islands some of which are of
ancient origin bearing dates prior to the Seventeenth Century. Some of
these ancient pipes are formed of very fine clay and although they
held but a small quantity of tobacco were doubtless considered to be
fine specimens in their time.
The manufacture of pipes commenced soon after the custom of using
tobacco had become fashionable and soon after the Virginians commenced
its cultivation. Fairholt says:
[Illustration: Old English pipes.]
"The early period at which tobacco pipes were first
manufactured, is established by the fact that the
incorporation of the craft of tobacco-pipe makers took place
on the 5th of October, 1619. Their privileges extending
through the cities of London and Westminster, the kingdom of
England and dominion of Wales. They have a Master, four
Wardens, and about twenty-four Assistants. They were first
incorporated by King James in his seventeenth year,
confirmed again by King Charles I., and lastly on the
twenty-ninth of April in the fifteenth year of King Charles
II., in all the privileges of their aforesaid charters.
"The London Company of Tobacco Pipe Makers was incorporated
in the reign of Charles II (1663); it had no hall and no
livery but was governed by a Master two wardens, and
eighteen assistants. The first pipes used in the British
Islands were made of silver while 'ordinary ones' were made
of a walnut shell and a straw. Afterwards appeared the more
common clay pipes in various forms and which are in use at
the present time."
During the reign of Anne and George I. the pipes assumed a different
form and greater length so long were the stems of some of them that
they were called yards of clay. The French pipe is one of the finest
manufactured and is made of a fine red clay especially those made by
Fiolet of St. Omer, one of the best designers of pipes. Many of these
like German pipes are made of porcelain, adorned with portraits and
landscapes. Others are made of rare kinds of wood turned in the lathe
or artistically carved, and lined with clay to resist the action of
fire.
The French also make pipes of agate, amber, crystal, carnelian and
ivory, as well as the various kinds of pure or mixed metals. Many of
the French and German pipes while they are beautiful in design and
made of the most costly materials are often exceedingly grotesque,
representing often the most ludicrous scenes and all possible
attitudes. Many of them have been termed as satirical pipes taking off
some public character _a la_ Nast.
Fairholt says of satirical pipes:
"England has occasioned the production of one satirical pipe
for sale among ourselves. The late Duke of Wellington toward
the close of his life, took a strong dislike to the use of
tobacco in the army, and made some ineffectual attempts to
suppress it. Benda, a wholesale pipe importer in the city
employed Dumeril, of St. Omer, to commemorate the event, and
the result was a pipe head, in which a subaltern, pipe in
hand, quietly 'takes a sight' at the great commander who is
caricatured after a fashion that must have made the work a
real pleasure to a Frenchman."
Many of the French pipes are
exceedingly quaint representing all manner of comical scenes. One is
formed like a steam-engine the smoke passing through the funnel.
Another is fashioned after a potato or a turnip while others often
represent some military subjects. In England and Ireland also pipes of
a whimsical form are common.
[Illustration: French pipes.]