Excerpt from Smoking: A World of Curious Facts, Queer Fancies, and Lively Anecdotes About Pipes, Tobacco and Cigars The use of tobacco among the Indians has been connected with their religious worship. NO treaty can be ratified with out smoking the' pipe of peace. Wilson, in his Prehistoric man, says: In the belief of the ancient worshipper, the Great Spirit smelled a sweet savouras the smoke of the sacred plant ascended to the heavens and the homely implement of modern luxury was in their hands a sacred censor, from which the hallowed vapour rose with as fit ting propitiatory odours as that which per fumes the awful precincts Of the cathedral altar, amid the mysteries of the church's high and holy days. The Indian calumet, or pipe of peace, is a sacred pipe ornamented with the war eagle's quills. It is never al lowed to be used on any other occasion than that of peace-making. When a treaty is made the chief brings it out, unfolds the many bandages which are carefully kept round it, and the pipe is passed to the dif ferent chiefs, each one in turn taking only one breath of smoke through it. From the red stone of the quarry, With his hand he broke a fragment, Moulded it into a pipe-head. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.