_Antiquity of Smoking_ (Vol ii., pp. 216. 521.)--C. B. says, alluding to
JARLTZBERG's references, "there is nothing in Solinus;" I read, however,
in Solinus, cap. xv. (fol. 70. ed. Ald. 1518), under the heading,
"Thracum mores, etc.":
"Uterque sexus epulantes focos ambiunt, herbarum quas habent
semine ignibus superjecto. Cujus nidore perculsi pro laetitia
habent imitari ebrietatem sensibus sauciatis."
JARLTZBERG's reference to Herod. i. 36. supplies nothing to the point:
Herod. iv. 2. mentions the use of bone pipes, [Greek: physeteras
osteinous], by the Scythians, _in milking_; but Herodotus (iv. 73. 75.)
describes the orgies of the Scythians, who produced intoxicating fumes
by strewing hemp-seed upon red-hot stones, as the leaves and seed of the
Hasisha al fokara, or hemp-plant, are smoked in the East at the present
day. (See De Sacy, _Chrestom. Arabe_, vol. ii. p. 155.) Compare also
Plutarch de Fluviis (_de Hebro_, fr. 3.), who speaks of a plant
resembling Origanum, from which the Thracians procured a stupefying
vapour, by burning the stalks:
"[Greek: Epititheasi pyri ... kai ten anapheromenen anathymiasin
dechomenoi tais anapnoiais, karountai, kai eis bathyn hypnon
katapherontai.] [Opera Varia, vol. vi. p. 444. ed. Tauchn.]"