a symbolical instrument of great importance among the American Indians.—It is nothing more than a pipe, whose bowl is generally made of a soft red marble; the tube of a very long reed, ornamented with the wings and feathers of birds. No affair of consequence is transacted without the calumet. It ever appears in meetings of commerce or exchanges; in congresses for determining peace or war; and even in the very fury of a battle. The acceptance of the calumet is a mark of concurrence with the terms proposed; as the refusal is a certain mark of rejection. Even in the rage of a conflict this pipe is sometimes offered; and if accepted, the weapons of destruction instantly drop from their hands, and a truce ensues. It seems the sacrament of the savages; for no compact is ever violated which is confirmed by a whiff from this holy reed. When they treat of war, the pipe and all its ornaments are usually red, or sometimes red only on one side. The size and decorations of the calumet are for the most part proportioned to the quality of the persons to whom they are presented, and to the importance of the occasion. The calumet of peace is different from that of war. They make use of the former to seal their alliances and treaties, to travel with safety, and to receive strangers; but of the latter to proclaim war. It consists of a red stone, like marble, formed into a cavity resembling the head of a tobacco pipe, and fixed to a hollow reed. They adorn it with feathers of various colours; and name it the calumet of the sun, to which luminary they present it, in expectation of thereby obtaining a change of weather as often as they desire. From the winged ornaments of the calumet, and its conciliating uses, writers compare it to the caduceus of Mercury, which was carried by the caduceateurs, or messengers of peace, with terms to the hostile states. It is singular, that the most remote nations, and the most opposite in their other customs and manners, should in some things have, as it were, a certain consent of thought. The Greeks and the Americans had the same idea, in the invention of the caduceus of the one, and the calumet of the other.

Dance of the CALUMET, is a solemn rite among the Indians on various occasions. They dare not wash themselves in rivers in the beginning of summer, nor taste of the new fruits, without performing it; and the same ceremony always confirms a peace or precedes a war. It is performed in the winter time in their cabins, and in summer in the open fields. For this purpose they choose a spot among trees to shade them from the heat of the sun, and lay in the middle a large mat, as a carpet, setting upon it the monitor, or god, of the chief of the company. On the right hand of this image, they place the calumet, as their great deity, erecting around it a kind of trophy with their arms. Things being thus disposed, and the hour of dancing come, those who are to sing take the most honourable seats under the shade of the trees. The company is then ranged round, every one, before he sits down, saluting the monitor, which is done by blowing upon it the smoke of their tobacco. Each person next receives the calumet in rotation, and holding it with both hands, dances to the cadence of the vocal music, which is accompanied with the beating of a sort of drum. During this exercise, he gives a signal to one of their warriors, who takes a bow, arrow, and axe, from the trophies already mentioned, and fights him; the former defending himself with the calumet only, and both of them dancing all the while. This mock engagement being over, he who holds the calumet makes a speech, in which he gives an account of the battles he has fought, and the prisoners he has taken, and then receives a cloak, or some other present, from the chief of the ball. He then resigns the calumet to another, who, having acted a similar part, delivers it to a third, who afterwards gives it to his neighbour, till at last the instrument returns to the person that began the ceremony, who presents it to the nation invited to the feast, as a mark of their friendship, and a confirmation of their alliance, when this is the occasion of the entertainment.