" :i*.; l."l liwilW(Wmmn ii«a«mi4Hftm i*Hfrff^f^'iy4rt^r-r'-Kr-ff % |; ' tyi^-ag^Kscta™^s*c\'i^^^',V'^-^l^g!^r i ljlp ..-..satauiJiiei- Cornell Unlversil GT 3020.P4 1902 The soverane herbe :a history of tobacco 3 1924 001 715 998 DATE DUE The Soverane Hcrbe Cornell University Library The original of tliis book is in tlie Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924001715998 A TOBACCONIST S SHOP, TEMP. JAMES I. From Brathwait's ' Smoaking Age,' 1617. The Soverane Herbe A History of Tobacco A Tobacco Drinker, 1623 W. A. PENN With Illustrations by W. Hartley London Grant Richards New York: E. P. Dutton & Co. 1902 — t ' Of all the weeds grown on earth, sure the nicotian is the most soothing and salutary.' Esmond. J4- O First edition, August, 1901, Second edition, February, igo2. BILLING AND SONS, LTD., PRINTERS, GUILDFORD PREFACE Fifty years ago Tobacco in England was at its lowest ebb. Snufif was declining in favour, and the increasing practice of smoking was being opposed bitterly by ' Society. To drink tobacco ' was then far from being considered the gentlemanly accomplishment that it was in the reign of Elizabeth or the harmless hobby that it is now. Smoking was regarded as a low vulgar practice, to be indulged in by only artisans, Bohemians, and the scum of society. Only within the last twenty years has smoking regained the social position that it held in the golden age of Queen Bess and the stern times of the seventeenth century. It is no longer scorned and sneered at, nor its practice relegated to the stable. It has lived down calumny and survived the satire and frown of Mrs. Grundy and the death sentence of the medical profession. It has come again to be regarded as one of the greatest boons with which man has been blessed. vi Preface So great has been the progress of tobacco during the last half century that no apology is needed in ' presenting this history of the ' Soverane Herb —its discovery, trials and adventures, its use in various ages, countries, and forms, and its growth and manu- facture. Since Fairholt's ' Tobacco,' published in 1859, this is the first attempt to chronicle the career * of the plant of wondrous feature ' in a manner befit- ting the subject. Some of the story has been par- tially told by various pamphleteers, but this volume contains much matter that has never been brought together before, rendering it, as I hope and believe, the most complete history of tobacco yet published. CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. THE BEGINNING OF SMOKING - I II. THE TRIAL OF TOBACCO • 24 III. TOBACCO'S WORLD TRIUMPH - 39 IV. TOBACCO IN ENGLISH SOCIAL LIFE - 57 V. SOCIAL PROGRESS OF TOBACCO - 75 - VI. THE TOBACCO PLANT : ITS CULTIVATION 98 VII. THE MANUFACTURE OF TOBACCO - I18 VIII. PIPES - 138 IX. HOW PIPES ARE MADE - 163 X. CIGARS 178 XI. CIGARETTES- 1 96 XII. SMOKE STATISTICS - 2C36 XIII. THE LITERATURE OF TOBACCO 217 XIV. TOBACCO AND GENIUS - 236 XV. SNUFF AND SNUFF-TAKERS 259 XVI. NICOTIANA - - 378 XVII. THE HYGIENE OF TOBACCO - 296 XVIII. TO SMOKE OR NOT TO SMOKE? - 3 II INDEX 321 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS A tobacconist's shop temp. JAMES I. - Frontispiece ASIATIC PIPES To face p. 50 old ENGLISH PIPES „ 8o PIPES OF NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS „ 138 AFRICAN AND OTHER PIPES , 160 — THE SOVERANE HERBE CHAPTER I THE BEGINNING OF SMOKING Smoking originated as a religious rite— Its evolution from incense—First seen by Columbus—Described by Gonzalo The first pipe, Tobago—Origin of word 'tobacco'— Its names in America—Practice common in the New World Descriptions of its use by the early travellers—Introduced into Europe—Was smoking practised in the Old World before the discovery of America ?—Use of herbal fumes by ancients— Smoking unknown until brought from America. The first man who ate an oyster is proverbial ; the inventor of roast pig is immortally enshrined ; but the first smoker is unknown. He is robed in no legend and enwreathed by no fable. Poets have not sung him, artists have not pictured him, nor have historians traced his rise and conquests, greater than those of Mahomet. Yet there is no practice so curious and universal as that of inhaling the smoke of tobacco. We have no story of the hero who dared the world's first smoke, of his fortitude under its tribulations, of his constancy, and of the I 2 The Soverane Herbe rarest joys which fell to him, the first smoker. There was, indeed, no such person. And to the true smoker's sense of the eternal fitness of things this silence accords well with the divinity of the herb. Nicotia had no birth, and smoking no beginning ; they know not Time. With the other herbs of the field tobacco rose from chaos, and smoking had its being in the earliest and deepest feelings of man's soul. The origin of the strange practice of inhaling the fumes of tobacco must not be sought among the pleasures of primitive man. It was as a religious rite that smoking originated ; the burning of tobacco was an expression of man's homage to the Great Spirit. The burning of incense or spices has had a place in the worship of all peoples from time immemorial ; and as myrrh and frankincense were offered in the East, so was tobacco in the West. Among all the aboriginal peoples of the Americas, from Cape Horn to Hudson's Bay, tobacco was regarded as a sacred plant, as the special gift of the gods to man. It was this fact that led European writers, Spenser among them, to term tobacco on its introduction the ' holy,' the ' divine ' herb. What was local colour then is a mere euphemism now. It was as incense that tobacco was first used by the American Indians, the leaf being dried, powdered, and then burnt as a sacrifice, as any aromatic herb might be. The sacred character and use of tobacco were noted by all the early travellers in America. Hariot, in the first English account of the Indian practice 2 The Beginning of Smoking 3 of smoking, writes, that uppowoc, or tobacco, ' is of so precious estimation among them that they think that their gods are so marvellously delighted therewith ; wherefore they make hallowed fire, and cast some of their powder therein for a sacrifice. Being cast in a storm upon the water, to pacify their god they cast some up into the air and into the water ; so a weir for fish being newly set up they cast some therein and into the air ; also after an escape of danger they cast some into the air like- wise ; but all done with strange gestures, stamping, sometime dancing, clapping of hands and staring up into the heavens, uttering therewithal and chatter- ing strange words and noises.' When the Indians of North 'America, in Drake and his crew, first saw white men, they took them for gods, and so presented to them bags of their finest tobacco. The Iroquois and Dakota Indians still burn tobacco as incense to their gods. Catlin, travelling among the red men seventy years ago, was told by them that they smoked to the Great Spirit through their red-stone pipes. Imperceptibly the burning of tobacco passed from a religious rite into a daily practice of pleasure. The evolution was along the line of least resistance, the physical and moral weaknesses of man. From burn- ing tobacco as a sacrifice the medicine or mystery man evolved the inspiration of the fume. By inhaling the smoke of the holy herb he claimed to enter into communication with the Great Spirit in the stupor produced by the smoke. To him, as to the oracle of Delphi and the witch-doctors of savage tribes, I — — 4 The Soverane Herbe matters of great moment and perplexity were brought for counsel. Like the priestess of the Delphic oracle, the medicine-man brooded over the fire, inspiring the smoke of the tobacco-sacrifice in order to obtain the help of the divine. Awaking from the stupor, he related what the gods had vouchsafed to tell him for the guidance of men. This was the inspiration of tobacco, literally and metaphorically. The medicine-man was the physician as well as the prophet of the tribe. To him came the sick and injured, and for all the ills to which flesh is heir he prescribed the smoke of the holy herb i.e.^ the care of the gods. The sick man was set to inhale the smoke of tobacco until he was intoxicated with it. Benzoni, who witnessed this in Central America, records that this was the chief method of curing sickness. ' On returning to his senses the sick man told a thousand stories of his having been at the council of the gods and other high visions.' The primitive manner of the inspiration of the tobacco smoke was to brood over the burning leaves as the Delphic priestess of Apollo was inspired by the fumes of smouldering herbs over which she sat. This clumsy method involved the fumigation of the whole head with the inhalation of the minimum quantity of the prophetic smoke. The next and most obvious step would be the use of a hollow reed or tube which, thrust into the burning tobacco incense, enabled the prophet or patient to inhale the smoke without fumigating his eyes or head. Thus came the first pipe.