Huntsville gazette., 1883-11-17
How the ASiatic Smokes.

| The Asiatic, so far as my observation
goes, never smokes his tabacco 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, nota-
bly, the young Mohammedan ''swells'-
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 amalgam,
and when kindled gives out faint,
sicklv odor, surprisingly tenacious and
penetrating. A Hindoo smoking his
hookah, or even the plebeian hubble
bubble, can be smelt out from a long
distance-as the lurking servant often
finds out to his cost. Apparently un-
conscious Of the far-reaching properties
of the scent, he will squat just round
the corner to have a quiet smoke with
friend when he ought to be about his
work, and retribution, guided to the
spot by the nose, suddenly overtakes
him in his fancied security. The varie-
ties of tobacco grown in the East are
chiefly .'Shiraz' and ''Latakia;" and
though they differ in degrees of quality,
they are very seldom above mediocrity
for the European taste There is no
preparation of the leaf worth calling
preparation; for the Oriental smoker
depends upon his particular tobacconist
or his own servants to mix up the COM
pound to suit his own taste. The flavor
of the actual leaf itself, therefore, goes
for little. When away from their own
country, however, the natives of India
will change their habit and smoke the
pure leaf-as, for instance, In the sugar
plantations of Mauritius, where [ have
seen the coolie smoking original-look-
ing cigarettes of his own manufacture.
But the most surprising specimens of
the self-made cigar are to be found
among the emancipated negroes of that
earthly paradise, the Seychelles Islands.
There the tobacco plant has run wild,
and the negro will sometimes so far be-
stir himself as to order his wife to make
him some cigars; and the results are
such distorted. preposterous caterpillars
of tobacco as might make a Regent
street tobacconist howl The material,
however. is excellent, being the best
Havana or Virginia leaf run wild, but
without curing or preparation of any
kind is naturally coarse and acrid. The
negro, however, likes it, and consumes
his home-rolled cigar in unstinted
abundance.
During the bombardment of Alexan-
dria one Of the houses that suffered Sc
verely was that of Hajji Nasim, the Gig
arctic manufacturer. But he impro-
vised temporary quarters, and in a jury
rgged sort of way managed to keep
abreast of the extraordinary demand
which the presence Of so many British
officers created. And what superb Gig
arettes the old Haiji made! l remem-
Der sitting with him one evening smOk-
ing, overlooking the bombarded square,
and listening to his "reminiscences of
Alexandria teDapor1s acti; and he told
me, among other things, that one Of the
best judges of tobacco he had ever
known was the late Sultan. And he
clapped his hands, and a girl brought
him a box of his Maiesty's private
brand, 'sthe Sultan;" and | certainly
found it the daintiest, most ladylike
smoking. But in the evening | un-
rolled couple and charged my Turk
ish pipe-a large amber bead for mouth
piece, jessamine stem, and bowl of da-
mascened clay-with the contents; and
when | had finished the pipe it seemed
as if had been smoking only the ghost
of tobacco, mere adumbration of the
weed. Fairies, if they smoke at all,
probably smoke ''Sultans."
But as this paper seems to have con.
cerned itself chiefly with criticisms of
others tobacco, ought in fairness to
add that the very worst tobacco l ever
put into pipe-worse than the Boer,
worse than the Chinese-was some of
my own growing and manufacture.
While in India | was permitted to as
sist at the public cost in some expert
ments in tobacco cultivation, and for
my own hobby selected Guatemala
seed. The result was amazing, terrific,
disastrous. | distributed it all among
my servants; and they, poor wretches,
out of respect to me, smoked it. But it
took them months to finish five pounds.
thought | should never have smelt the
last of it.-St. James Gazette.