"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.
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.
Peace Pipe.