Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1855-09-06
SMOKING IN THE EAST.

Smoking occupies nearly nine tenths of IN
Eastern life men of all nations, all races, of
every language. and of every amount of educa-
ton, follow this universal custom. In Constan-
tinople, everybody smokes his tchibuck, mar
ghuile, and cigarette from the youngest to the
Oldest, from the highest to the lowest grade of
society, men and women, gentle and simple, con-
versing. transacting business, writing, reading,
or walking; all emit, twenty Or thirty times
day, at shorter or longer intervals greater or
smaller clouds of smoke. But the king of
smokers-he who, without his pipe, would con-
slider life slavery, enjoyment misery, and su-
preme rule an insupportable burden-is the Os-
manli, the Turk, of pure race, the Legitimate
descendant Of Mahommed. Poor Osmanl IF
the Russians had conspred to destroy all his
tubes Of cherry-tree, walnut rosewood or jas
mine--his perfumed and opiate tobacco, and
his magnificent jewelled, enamelled, or carved
amber mouth-piece-he would more willingly
have abandoned his European Empire to the
Giaur pesecanck; anything but deprivation OF
the supreme delight of his tchibuck, the COM
panion of his kief.
The kief! What is the kief! 1t is unknown
in England, where men labor perpetually, and
think and act incessantly. 1t consists in doing
MISUNDERSTANDING of nothing. When you see
a man or woman reclining languidly on sofa
near the window, and looking far into the blue
distance of the sea or open country; when, in
your walk, you observe an individual, half con-
cealed under verdant tree, near river or
fountain, or on the sea-shore or when you dis
cover him, indolently resting on a carpet, amidst
the thick foliage of his garden, or the dark cy-
presses of cemetery, and he remains notion
less, so that life is only discovered by the e1ha-
lation, at regular intervals, Of the smoke of bis
tchibuck, the mouth-piece of.wfich rests light
ly between his lips-you would say he is max
ing his kief. Opium is often. in his tobacco,
glass of raki is sometimes before: him but IN
this ease, the kief is profaned. Coffee alone,
served in o small cup, capable Of holding two
or three sips of the. precious draught, makes
part of the solemnity--then smoke, nothing but
smoke. Renounce for thez time it lasts-one
hour at least-motion and life !. deprive the
mind Of all thought, and the body OF all &C.
ton; merge yourself intonotbingness ; neither
see norspeak, but look vacantly on nature, and
the smoke ising from the pipe-these are the
qualities Indispensable for those who dedicate
themselves to the worship of the kef This le
thargic concentration of the body, this wander
ing or negation of the soul. four or five times {
day, is the greatest enjoyment of Mussulmal
life. 1t is to the Turk an abstraction from lif
to an ecstacy which few pleasures can equal
and no joys surpass, unless it be those Of Para
disc, promised by the Prophet to the true be
liever. ..s.t -.
4 The Turk fought resohtely to procure thi
solemn state Of lethargy and sleep-waking, 70
among no people was the Introduction of tobac
J co opposed with 80 much yigor as among tn
Turks. 1t was in l6O5.Ain the reign Of the SUI
tan Akmed, that the Dutchtwho had for som
time taken portion of the commerce from th
venetians, brought the plant to Constantinopl'
and produced new enjoymentfor the conquel
ers of the proud Stamboal. History relat
that they give themselves up to the habit i
smoking with such an excess Of satisfaction, thu
9 the mufti, thinking he perceived in the intoxic
: ton produced in those unaccustomed to its US
I the same effects Us wine, issued fetipa again
I the innovation. This decree caused general di
fsatisfaction. 1t was urged that tobacco cou
y not, like wine, de6e, as the smoke did not r
Il main in the body; and as i, had not been pr
}, hibited by Mahommed, the mufti had no rig
to be more severe than the Prophet. The mul
: put forth various prophecies, and endeavored
v prove them authentic, In which tobacco W
II stgmatized, and those who introduced IL we
d denounced as false prophets, exposed TO Allah
Wrath. These discussions only increased t