CALUMET (Norm. Fr.

See also:

• FORM (Lat. forma)

form of chalumet, from

See also:

• LAT

Lat. calamus, a

See also:

• REED
• REED, ANDREW (1787-1862)
• REED, ISAAC (1742—1807)
• REED, JOSEPH (1741—1785)
• REED, THOMAS BRACKETT (1839—1902)

reed)  , the name given by the French in Canada to the " peace-pipe " of the American Indians . This pipe occupied among the tribes a position of peculiar symbolic significance, and was the object of profound veneration . It was smoked on all ceremonial occasions, even on declarations of war, but its special use was at the making of treaties of peace . It was usually about 22 ft. long, and in the west the bowl was made of red pipestone (catlinite), a fine-grained, easily-worked stone of a rich red colour found chiefly in the Coteau des Prairies west of Big Stone Lake, Dakota . The quarries were formerly neutral ground among the warring Indian tribes, many sacred traditions being associated with the locality and its product (Longfellow, Hiawatha, i.) . The pipe stem was of reed decorated with eagles' quills or women's hair . Native tobacco mixed with willow-bark or sumac leaves was smoked . The pipe was offered as a supreme proof of hospitality to distinguished strangers, and its refusal was regarded as a grievous affront . In the east and south-east, the bowl was of white stone, sometimes pierced with several stem holes so that many persons might smoke at once . See Joseph D . Macguire (exhaustive report,64o pages), " Pipes andSmoking Customs of the American Aborigines" in Smitkconi¢nReport (American Bureau of Ethnology) for 1897, vol. i.; and authorities quoted in Handbook of American Indians (Washington,19o7) .