COUNCILS.—Councils are opened in a very sedate and orderly form. The pipe is the principal of all ceremonies, and its motions vary with the occasions. Councils between two nations for a peace, deputations of both being present, are very solemn and take a long time. It is likely these ceremonies are very ancient, being nearly the same among all the roving tribes. The real calumet used on this occasion with its accompaniments presents the form as sketched and explained in Plate 68. This instrument is always kept packed up in many envelopes of cloth, skin, etc., the whole making a roll as thick as a man’s thigh, sometimes as large as a piece of common stovepipe, 5 or 6 feet long, is laid in the middle of the soldiers’ lodge on a piece of scarlet cloth in that way before the deputation has arrived, or immediately on its arrival, is not opened, however, until a full council has been assembled. The chief (who owns the pipe) then commences the ceremony of unrolling it, and at the taking off of each envelope says a few words equivalent to “Peace we wish,” “Look over us, Wakoñda,” “This to the Sun,” “This to the Earth,” etc., giving, as it were, some distinction or value to each envelope. After a long time and the untying of many knots, the pipe and stem appear, with a tobacco sack, a bunch of sweet-smelling grass, a probe for the pipe, and a small sack containing a charm or amulet. The pipe is on this occasion filled from the tobacco (or mixture) sack by the chief of the soldiers, though not lit, and in this way handed to his own chief. He (the chief) now stands up, the different deputations of nations sitting opposite each other on either side of the lodge. He first presents the pipe to the East, singing a gentle and harmonious song for about a minute, then presents it South, West, North, to the Sky and lastly to the Earth, repeating the song at each presentation. [Illustration: BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY FORTY-SIXTH ANNUAL REPORT PLATE 68 THE CALUMET AND ITS ACCOMPANIMENTS _A_, The pipestem of ash wood, garnished about half its length with porcupine quills of various colors; _B_, a large red-stone pipe; _C_, _C_, _C_, three tails of the war eagle, feathers connected with sinew and beads or shells between. The stem or stalk of the feathers is garnished with colored porcupine quills; _D_, _D_, two festoons of beads or shells with a small strip of otter skin on which the beads are tied; _E_, the head of a mallard duck (male) without the under bill. Sometimes this is the head of a red-headed woodpecker.]