1. They take a pipe much larger and bigger than the common tobacco pipe, expressly made for that purpose, with which all towns are plentifully provided; they call them the pipes of peace.
2. This pipe they always fill with tobacco, before the face of the strangers, and light it.
3. The chief man of the Indians, to whom the strangers come, takes two or three whiffs, and then hands it to the chief of the strangers.
4. If the stranger refuses to smoke in it, 'tis a sign of war.
5. If it be peace, the chief of the strangers takes a whiff or two in the pipe, and presents it to the next great man of the town they come to visit; he, after taking two or three whiffs, gives it back to the next of the strangers, and so on alternately, until they have past all the persons of note on each side, and then the ceremony is ended.
After a little discourse, they march together in a friendly manner into the town, and then proceed to explain the business upon which they came. This method is as general a rule among all the Indians of those parts of America as the flag of truce is among the Europeans. And though the fashion of the pipe differ, as well as the ornaments of it, according to the humor of the several nations, yet 'tis a general rule to make these pipes remarkably bigger than those for common use, and to adorn them with beautiful wings and feathers of birds, as likewise with peak, beads, or other such foppery. Father Lewis Henepin gives a particular description of one that he took notice of among the Indians upon the lakes wherein he traveled. He describes it by the name of the calumet of peace, and his words are these, Book I., chap. 24:
"This calumet is the most mysterious thing in the world among the savages of the continent of the Northern America; for it is used in all their important transactions: however, it is nothing else but a large tobacco pipe, made of red, black or white marble; the head is finely polished, and the quill, which is commonly two feet and a half long, is made of a pretty strong reed or cane, adorned with feathers of all colors, interlaced with locks of women's hair. They tie it to two wings of the most curious birds they can find, which makes their calumet not much unlike Mercury's wand, or that staff ambassadors did formerly carry when they went to treat of peace. They sheath that reed into the neck of birds they call huars, which are as big as our geese, and spotted with black and white; or else of a sort of ducks, which make their nests upon trees, though the water be their ordinary element, and whose feathers be of many different colors. However, every nation adorns their calumet as they think fit, according to their own genius, and the birds they have in their country.
Such a pipe is a pass and safe conduct among all the allies of the nation who has given it. And in all embassies, the ambassador carries that calumet, as the symbol of peace, which is always respected: for the savages are generally persuaded, that a great misfortune would befall them, if they violated the public faith of the calumet.
"All their enterprises, declarations of war, or conclusions of peace, as well as all the rest of their ceremonies, are sealed, (if I may be permitted to say so,) with this calumet: They fill that pipe with the best tobacco they have, and then present it to those with whom they have concluded any great affair, and smoke out of the same after them."
In tab. 6, is seen the calumet of peace, drawn by Lahontan, and one of the sort which I have seen.