The Van Buren press., 1896-11-14
UNIQUE PIPE.
Which Is the Result of South African
Inventive Genius.


The Ka11irs of South Africa are in
many ways a remarkable people, but
perhaps the most singular thing about
them is their mode of smoking, and es-
pecially their pipes. The ordinary KAT
fir pipe is a sufficiently formidable af-
fair. 1t is almost as big and heavy as
the "llnob kerry or war club, which
it often considerably resembles IN
form; at q pinch 1t would make u for
midable weapon in the hands Of its mus
cular owner. But it isn't every Kat1ir
who can afford an ornate pipe of this
description, and every Kaflir must
smoke-so he thinks. Curiously
enough, the poorest man smokes the
biggest pipe-the biggest, indeed, on
the face OF the earth, for it is nothing
less than the earth itself. | don't sup
pose that he is so coneeited, though the
Kaffirs have plenty of conceit, as to i'm.
agine that he towns the earth" but he
does use it for tobacco pipe-and this
is how he does it:
lie has managed to procure n handful
of tobacco, but has no regulation pipe.
Shall he forego his smoke? Not he;
necessity is certainly the mother OF
invention i'll this case. He first pours
a little water Oh the ground and makes
a sort of mud pie. He then takes lin.
Der twlg and bends it into the shape OF
a bow; this he buries in the mud il such
a way that both ends protrude little
at the surface. He then wnits awhile
for the mud to harden. He doesn't
mind waiting, for Katiir has lots of
time, and it isn't necessary to wait long,
for the hot tropical sun bakes the clay
very quickly. When he considers that
the pie is done to II turn" he pulls out
the twig, which, of course, leaves a
curved hole through the clay At one
end he scoops out a sort of bowl, in
which he places his tobacco. At the
other end he fastens little mound to
serve as mouthpiece; it looks more
like the opening of II small ant hill
than anything else. A European, prob
ably wouldn't relish a mouthpieee OF
mud-he. couldn't use it, anyhow, for
his nose would be too much in the way,
but q Kaffir doesn stick at trifles, and
he has no nose to speak of. So he
drops live coal on the tobacco in the
bowl lies fiat on the ground, applies
his thick lips to the orifice and sucks
away-drawing in vast quantities OF
the ranllest, vilest smoke that ever
made human being gasp and choke.
For it is not enough that his tobacco
is the coarsest and strongest and in
every way the worst that the soil Of
this planet produces; mere tobacco
isn't potent enough to satisfy KAT.
fir, though single Whit of II
would PROSTATE the most accomplished
European smoker. So he mixes with it
a liberal quantity of "dagha," kind
of hemp with intoxicating qualities
similar to those of hashish. This is a
drug powerful enough to paralyze even
a South African, and by the time his
pipe is finished the smoker frequently
falls in a fit. In many cases he be-
comes quite insensible, and for a long
time lies like a log; indeed-so perni-
cious is the stuff--he sometimes never
arouses. But lives are cheap in Africa
what does it matter, one Kafiir more or
less? Just where the pleasure comes in
u civilized man is at loss to Discovers
but no amount of argument can wcan
the South African savage from his to-
baeco and "dagha. Washington Star.