THE HISTORY OF TOBACCO
“Before taking the form of the powder which the user of snuff pushes up
into his nose to tickle his nostrils and promote sneezing, before being
rolled into the cigar or reduced to that crisp, moss-like substance
which the smoker stuffs into his pipe, tobacco has had a previous
existence as a plant bearing this same name. A stalk about one meter in
height, large, clammy leaves of a strong odor, bright red flowers each
shaped like a narrow funnel and expanding into the five points of a
star at the orifice, dry capsules filled with innumerable little
seeds—there you have the tobacco plant.
“Only the leaves are used, and these only after undergoing certain
processes that intensify their natural properties and cause them to
lose their green color. Rolled into compact little cylinders, they
become cigars; cut very fine, they take the form of smoking tobacco.
Reduced to powder, they furnish what is known as snuff.
“America, the same land to which we owe the potato, also gave us
tobacco. When, almost four centuries ago, Christopher Columbus
discovered the new world, one of the first landings he made was on the
large island of Cuba. Apprehensive of danger in the forests from the
savage tribes on every side, Columbus sent scouts ahead to reconnoitre
the country.
“The sailors forming this party encountered on the way, to their
extreme surprise, numerous Indians, both men and women, holding each a
sort of lighted fire-brand between the teeth and inhaling the smoke.
These fire-brands, called ‘tabagos,’ were made of a plant rolled up in
a dry leaf. There, then, were the first smokers and the first cigars
recorded in history.
“The natives of Cuba and the neighboring islands had, we infer, been
addicted to smoking for a long time, probably for centuries, when the
Europeans first appeared among them. They had their rolls of dry
leaves, or tabagos, and their smoking appliances of soft stone or baked
clay, appliances called by us ‘pipes’ and by them ‘calumets.’ Tobacco,
in fact, played a prominent part in their medicine, their superstitious
observances, and their political assemblies.
“Consulted as to future events, the soothsayer first of all inhaled the
smoke of several tabagos, while the other persons present, seated in a
circle, vied with one another in the energy of their smoking, their
ultimate object being to enwrap themselves in a dense cloud. Then from
the midst of this cloud the soothsayer, his imagination wrought to a
high pitch by the fumes of the tobacco, delivered his oracles in
unwonted terms that made the hearers believe they were listening to the
voice of God.
“A like ceremony was observed in the assemblies held for discussing
public affairs. Seated on a stone and inhaling the smoke from his
calumet, the orator who was about to take the floor waited in passive
silence while the chiefs of the nation approached him, one at a time,
to blow into his face plenteous puffs from their pipes and to commend
to him the interests of the tribe. These fumigations concluded, the
orator abandoned himself to his eloquence amid the enthusiastic acclaim
of the assembly.
“Seeing the islanders smoking, Columbus’s companions wished to try this
singular custom for themselves. To the gratification of this desire the
Indian lent his ready assistance: he showed them how the tabago is
rolled, and how the calumet is filled and lighted. Though history is
silent on the subject, it is clear that the first sailor to undertake
the inhalation must have been seized with that fearful nausea which no
novice in smoking can escape. A stomach of any delicacy would have been
forever repelled; the harsh gullet of the mariner found a certain charm
in the thing when once the trying experiences of initiation were over.
“The taste for smoking was so soon acquired that, on their return to
Spain, the companions of Columbus very quickly extended this Indian
custom in their own country. Before long, too, there was discovered a
new way to use tobacco: some one conceived the idea of reducing the
leaf to a dry powder and stuffing it into the nostrils, sniffing with
each pinch of the powdered substance. The Indian had discovered smoking
tobacco; the European in his turn invented snuff.
“Spain and Portugal numbered their smokers and snuff-takers by the
thousand when, in 1560, tobacco made its first appearance in France.
Nicot, French ambassador at Lisbon, sent as an object of curiosity to
his sovereign queen, Catherine de Médicis, some seeds of the
fashionable plant and a box of tobacco in powdered form. Charmed with
this gift, the queen quickly contracted the habit of taking snuff. To
please her, tobacco was cultivated, and snuff-takers soon became
numerous in all the provinces. It was said that a certain great
personage of the period took as much as three ounces daily. He
certainly must have had his nose well tanned.
“From one nation to another the use of tobacco gradually spread, but
not without serious opposition. The Turks are to-day passionately
addicted to smoking, extremely fond of their long pipes; yet hear what
sort of a reception they at first gave to tobacco. Against smokers and
snuff-takers their emperor, Amurat, issued an edict severe to the point
of cruelty. Every delinquent was condemned to receive fifty strokes
with the rod on the soles of his feet.”
“That ought to have driven tobacco out of the country in short order,”
remarked Jules.
“That was merely a warning to first offenders,” returned his uncle.
“For a second offense the luckless person caught in the act had his
nose cut off. It was a radical measure to discourage the snuff-taker:
no more nose, no more snuff. But the smokers, after this horrible
mutilation, persisted in their smoking.
“A king of Persia devised what he thought would cure even this habit:
every one caught with a pipe in his mouth had his upper lip cut off. At
the same time, of course, every nose proved guilty of snuff-taking fell
under the executioner’s knife. But the atrocious edict of the Persian
king proved as futile as that of the Turkish emperor. Despite all the
noses struck off, all the lips cut away, all the feet made to tingle
under the rod, the use of tobacco still continued to spread. These
fruitless severities had to be abandoned.
“Other regulations sprang up here and there, less cruel, but
sufficiently fruitful in fines, imprisonments, vexations of all sorts.
Still nothing was of any avail; smokers and snuff-takers remained
incorrigible. Finally, taking wiser counsel, the government authorities
conceived a plan for making this passion, which no severity had been
able to subdue, yield them large revenues. The government itself became
exclusive vender of the very article it had at first proscribed with
such rigor. France alone derives a yearly revenue of almost three
hundred million francs from the sale of tobacco.”