Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1883-10-18
Tobacco.
NATIONAL pEcULIARIrIES IS SMOKING.
TIE WEED AMONG TIE AsIATICS, INDIANS
AND SOUTH AFRICANS.


~t.James Gazette.
In the course of nv travels up and down
the earth have blown clouds s-"the white
pigeons" Of Sioux legends-with the native of
Hndostan and with the Red Indian of the
Far West, with the Chinaman and the Mexi-
can, with the kafir and the Negro, with Boer,
Afrikander, and Creole, with Turk AMI Egyp-
tian, with Mormon and Gentle, with Hindoo,
Mohammedan. Buddhist, and idolater, with
black and brown, red, yellow, and even pie
bald two Malagasy boatmen at Reunion were
as checquered as circus horsesl; and must
confess that some Of the ideas Of tobacco that
| have encountered have been so pathetic in
their aboriginal crudity that | could have
wept for my innocent brother. But compass
sion is very often misplaced, and il is a good
travellers rule to reserve pearls for those who
appreciate them Thus native OF India will
not smoke your tobacco, even If he will take ii
at all. till he has mashed it up with molass.s
and musk. Share the contents of YOUR
pouch with a Red Indian. and the IN
tutored child Of the prairie will forthwith
mix it with other vegetables to make it 20
further. The Afrikander despises what YOU
smoke; the Chinaman calls it hay. For
tastes in tobacco differ as much as tastes in
persona. beauty, and each thinks that which
He il accustomed to the best
The Beers grow and manufacture tobacco
of their own which is Of such detestable
odor 70 civilized man that remember dur
ing the Zulu war we used 10 tip the X afir
or Atrikander drivers Of mail carts not to
smoke except during the halts at stages.
and then always to leewarI. Il was no us4
Nh offcr them our superior article for the
dreadful Dutchmen scorncd it as trash.
Equally oliou, i the ordinary tobacco Of
fhr Chinese. The Bocr >tuff smells rank
and green and acrid but the CeeStia! has d
heavy, clinsins, clogging odor, that sug-
gest> opium Ill the compositions Tie Sou'h
Atrican leaf when ready for consumption
looks Ike crumb!ed hay, with miscellaneous
lead garden rubbish and the sweepings Of
a conservatory added. II i full Of twigs
and knots and threads Of vegetable matter.
and is Of a general greensh gray tint. The
Chinese. Oh the other hand. is curously soft
~ lifts up IN silky skeIns Of exquiSitely fine
hair-ike strands, and is Of deep chicorv-
color, and resembles some vegetable tibre
stepped in ja.Eery rather than tobacco leaf
The Boer tobacco blows out Of the pipe-it
is 50 dry and lagran,; but the other pad,
down into the pipe close and firm, and the
bowl has 10 be filled a, liyhtl, as possible
N order 70 obtain any draught at ALL To
smoke pipe Of the former is to ,corch the
tongue and To 20 about all day with the
taste Of Turkey rhubarb in Your mouth 10
Venture On the latter is to enjoy cool nigh
y aromatic pipe, with the subsequent penal
~ M siddlne,s and sick headache, as after
laundering administration Of chloroform.
Il requires only an effort Of the stomach to
return to Boer tobacco a second Ii ne; to re-
turn 10 Chinese a second time YOU must
turn Chnaman.
III singular contrast to both these disa-
greeable herbs is the tobacco Of the red
Indian, which is both light and fragrant
even when there is no tobacco in it. For
the savage cannot always obtain the pre-
cious leaf and verv often when he can.
economy and il may be, taste leads him to
adulterate il with various vegetable sub
stances Of pleasant flavor. The most US
ual is the inner bark Of the red willow,
which | have helped Navajo Indians, in the
valley OF Rio Virgin. to prepare in the fol
lowing way. The young wlthes of the viii
low are cut into lengths Of about two feet
the outer bark is removed, and the inner is
the. peeled up in long strips, one end being
left adhering to the withes. These are then
stuck into the ground around charcoal fire.
and Kept there till the strips Of bark, hang
Ing down in fringe, shrivel up with the
heat and curl themselves into crisp ringets
around the upper ends. When they seem
sufficiently dry they are crumbed up in the
hand into pieces of the size of ordinary
bran. To this, if the shrub grows in the
vicinity, the smoked leaves of species of
sumach is added, which are simply prepared
bv roasting them over the cinders and then
crumblng them. If, finally leaf of tobacco
be crushed up and mingled with the willow
and sumach, a smoking mixture" of an
agreeable aromatic flavor and fragrance and
Of harmless mildness is obtained 1t is
smoked, to correct the heat in long
stemmed pipe, ending in capacious
cylindrical bowl OF clay, which, compared
with the small reed stemmed opium pipe
kind Of instrument which the Celestial
favors,or the villanously unclean dhudeen of
the Boer, is as much superior to both as the
mixture smoked in it is superior to either Of
the others.
The Asiatic, so far as my observation
goes. never smokes his tobacco pure. The
simple leaf is too strong for him, and his
taste for sweets leads him to mix it with
sugar, molasses or honey, and-in the case
of the luxurious, notably the Young Moham-
medan .sweli"-to perfume and qualify the
mixture with paste of roses and spices.
When ready for the pipe it looks like crude
opium,a tenacious black amagam, and when
kindIed give. out a faint sickly odor.