, 1912-10-26
THE ROMANCE OF TOBACCO.
BY LIEUTENANT COLONEL p. r. BAIRNsFArHER
tCh0mbers'S Journal, AprU I9I9.)

At Cawdor Castle there is on an old carved
mantelpiece the figure of q fox with a pipe
(qpite distincD in his mouth. The nantel-
piece is said to be of considerably earlier
date than that of the introduction of tobac-
co into this country-a fact, if so it be,
which must have struck many as passing
strange.
When [ was in India, and especially when
travelling, as | often did, through many re-
mote valleys of the Himalay as, and seeing
everywhere there, as IN India itself, the uni
Versal use of the 'soveraigne herb" locally
grown too, and perhaps remembering Cav
dor, great doubts would often arise ms to
the correctness Of the accepted belief that
the plant aud the smoking habit in these
far-off lands really came all the way from
America. For, as is we'll known, it is not
only throughout India that the custom has
for long prevailed, but throughout the whole
OF the East-China, Japan, the Malay Ar
ehipelago, Persia, Afghanistan-in fact, in
every country in Asia,
For the rest, what countries of the world
have escaped In sober truth, very few.
The case of Europe requires no mention,
practically the whole of Africa acknowledges
the sway, Australasia is not behind-hand,
while of course the two Ameri cas- are satur-
nted with the smoke and, to cap all, a very
remarkable case of peaceful penetration was
brought to light only the other day, when %
party of explorers in unknown New Guinea
came across q primitive tribe, described as
living in the Stone Age, who had certainly
never seen q white man before, but who
nevertheless were oil smoking.
Truly, then, l think it may be said that
no commodity, be it of food, drink, or
mere luxury, has established for itself
such a universal vogue. Even wheat or
other food-grain, salt, or sugar, u ust, [ be-
heye, give place, while such things rs tea
or coffee are, of course, not in it. Small
wonder then, that doubts should arise, and
especially when one considers the stubborn
conservatism of the East in most things, and
also the fact that varieties of the plant are
by no means confined to America, as to the
possibility Of all this having spread from
one centre even III the space of three hun
rlred years! Yet it seems to be quite true
and one fact alone is, to my mind, sufficient
10 prove this unquestionably, although some
authorities apparently still incline to the
belief that the smoking habit, like SO many
other things, may have been indigenous in
China. The fact | allude to is that Marco
Polo does not mention it. AS is we'll known,
he travelled right across Asia to China in
the thirteenth century ; and, had tobacco
and smoking been in evidence then, he, an
acute observer and recorder of all things
new to him, could not, surely, have failed to
make note of such u strange custom.
So then, the idea of attempting to dis
prove the Old belief in the absolute Ameri-
can origin-a proposition which | once cher
isbed-must be abandoned as futile, and we
must instead content ourselves with q con-
temptation of the marvel of the now world
wide distribution. 10 appreciate more fully
this conquest of the world, it has to be re-
membered what a storm of opposition had
to be encountered at the outset edicts of
emperors an kings, Grand Turk aud Tsar,
auathema OF priest and pope aud minister,
aud derunciation of the medical faculties,
to say nothing of natural family opposition