Page:Don Coronado through Kansas.djvu/268

THE PIPE EMBI^EMATICSAL, OF TBUTH. 253 hospitality, but except with the Pawnees, which had heea already arran;ged was to be their D«zt stoppiai; place, it was announced that the plans of the expedi- tion would not at that time allow of their remaininc; in the country long. ^ While these talks are going on, Chief Tatarraz is preparing the pipe of peace, which, according to the highest authority, holds an important part in the mythology and ritual of almost aU our tribes, ea»taiid west, and no great ceremony is complete and no treaty was ever ratified without it. It is generally symbolic of peace and truth. As a peace emblem, ft was formerly carried by every bearer of a friendly message from one tribe to another, and was smolnd in solemn ratification of treaties, the act of smoking being itself in the nature of an oath. Amcoig the prairie tribes, an individual accused of crime is of- ferted the sacred pipe, and if he accepts it and smokes he is declared innocent, as no Indian would dare to smoke it if guilty. The ordinary ceremonial pipe of the prairie tribes is made of the red stone known as catlinite, from the famous pipe-stone quarry in Min- nesota, which still retains its name by the city of Pipestone, in the county of the same name in the old country of the "Sioux." One of these catlinite pipes was unearthed near Stockdale, Riley county, Kansas. The only peculiar thing is, it has no holes bored, either for the tobacco or stem. It shows that although the Kansas tribe were many hundred mUes from the quarry in Minnesota, yet they had the material for a sacred peace pipe. A cut of the pipe is shown in "Quivira;" also a common pipe made from chalk, ex-