Excerpt from Early Smoking Pipes of the North American Aborigines

With our red people, even as at the present time, there was no habit so universal as that of smoking. The narcotic influences of this plant gave a certain amount of solace to the smoker when in his home of relaxation and rest. Nor was he without his favorite pastime even when away on the chase or at war. The Indian believed that tobacco was of Divine origin, coming as a direct gift for his especial benefit from the Great Spirit, who Himself was addicted to the habit of smoking.

The pipe therefore came to be regarded as a sacred object, and smoking partook of the character of a moral if not of a religious act. The incense of tobacco was deemed pleasing to the Father of Life, and the ascending smoke was selected as the most suitable medium of communication with the world of spirits. Without the presence of the pipe, filled with lighted tobacco, was there no declaration of war, nor a treaty of peace made.

We are told by Col. C. C. Jones in his Antiquities of the Southern Indians, page 384, that Among the primitive in habitants of at least some of the Southern regions pipes were elevated to the dignity of idols before whose elaborately carved forms of man and bird, and beast, the deluded fell down and worshipped.

Catlin savs. There is no custom more uniformly in con stant use among the poor Indians than that of smoking. Nor any other more highly valued. His pipe is his con stant rcompanion through life - his messenger of peace; he pledges his friends through its stem and its bowl, and when its care-drowning fumes ceases to flow, it takes a place with him in his solitary grave, with his tomahawk and war-club, companions to his long-fancied 'mild and beauti ful hunting grounds.'

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