Tour the Castle's Top Floor After its First Fifty Years

The bowls of some of these pipes are formed in imitation of the human head, bearing characteristics of the Indian race, the head dress, the tattoo marks, &c.; others represent animals, such as the beaver, otter, elk, bear wolf, panther, wild cat, raccoon, oppossum, squirrel, sea cow. More frequent are the carvings of birds, among which the eagle, hawk, falcon, turkey-buzzard, heron, owl, raven, swallow, parrot, duck, &c., can be recognized. The alligator, snake, toad and frog have their representatives. The imitated animals, however, all belong to the North American fauna.

The " calumet pipe" is a large stone pipe smoked with a stem, usually fashioned in imitation of a bird, mammal, &c. So called on account of their size, which seems to indicate their character as pipes of ceremony, to be used on solemn occasions. The large and remarkable carving representing a bird with a strongly curved beak, standing on a high pedestal, and showing on its front an inverted human face bearing incised lines, was found in Kentucky.

Return to start of the Top Floor of the Castle's Main Hall in 1886