2^ S. Ifo 100., Nov. 28. '67.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



425 



LONDON, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 1857. 



ON TRANSLATIONS FROM TRANSLATIONS : BENZONI, 

 TOBACCO AND CIGAHS. 



It is an amusing investigation to trace some of 

 the references of our standard and established his- 

 torians to the original source of their assertions. 

 If the original does not flatly contradict the asser- 

 tion, it frequently shows that it has been vastly 

 modified by filtration through the " prepared pa- 

 per " of translators. But if it be wrong to quote 

 at second-hand, when we can refer to the original, 

 it is certainly most improper to publish the transla- 

 tion of an author, not from his original, but from 

 a translation. This method converts the book into 

 mere " hearsay " evidence, which we take to be no 

 evidence at all. In other cases we find, in a sub- 

 sequent edition of a work, a material divergence 

 from some assertion advanced in the first — perhaps 

 bearing upon a point of controversy — rendering 

 it absolutely necessary that a careful comparison 

 should be made in the text with all previous edi- 

 tions, so as to discover whether the divergence 

 stultifies the author and renders his testimony 

 useless for the purpose of quotation in evidence. 



There is an instance in point in Benzoni's His- 

 tory of the Neio Worlds just translated and pub- 

 lished by Itear-Admiral Smyth. It has long been 

 doubtful what the Indians meant by the word 

 tobacco, which is now applied to the leaf or the 

 plant in any condition. Now, in the recent trans- 

 lation we find the following at p. 81. : 



" It has happened to me several times, that going 

 through the provinces of Guatemala and Nicaragua, I 

 have entered the house of an Indian who had taken this 

 herb, which in the Mexican language is called tobacco, 

 and immediately perceiving the sharp fetid smell of this 

 truly diabolical and stinking smoke, I was obliged to go 

 away in haste, and seek some other place." 



Of course this passage might be quoted by an 

 investigator of the history of tobacco, as a proof 

 that the Mexicans called the herb or plant to- 

 bacco, which is utterly erroneous : — but Benzoni 

 did not say so in hhjirst edition. He there said: 



"A me e accaduto sentirlo solamente andando per la 

 via, nella provincia di Guatimale e Nicaragua, h entrare 

 in casa [di] qualche Indiano, che preso haveva questo 

 fumo che in lingua Mesicana h chiamato tabacco, e subito 

 sentito il fetore acuto, era forzato a partirmi con gran 

 prestezza" (p. 54. b. ed. Ven., 1565.) 



" I have happened to smell it even when merely 

 walking along the road in the province of Guati- 

 mala and Nicaragua; or on entering the hut of 

 an Indian who had been taking this smoke, which 

 the Mexicans call tabacco, suddenly smelling the 

 sharp stench, I was forced to decamp with great 

 rapidity." 



There is a material variance in the two pas- 

 sages. The two words/etore acuto (sharp stench) 



have been upset into " a truly diabolical and stink- 

 ing smoke ! " Surely King James, Joshua Silves- 

 ter, or Adam Clarke, could not have taken greater 

 liberty with the subject, in order to uphold their 

 argument, as a matter of course invoking the 

 devil.* The explanation of this divergence is, 

 that the gallant Admiral used the edition of 1572, 

 in which the passage is thus materially altered. 

 But another consideration forces itself upon the 

 mind. The passage is given to the same effect in 

 the Latin translation of Benzoni, suggesting the 

 hasty inference that the gallant Admiral had trans- 

 lated from a translation. How careful, therefore, 

 should we be in advancing any charge of literary 

 malpractices without first making a very careful 

 investigation into all the circumstances of the 

 case. 1 may state, however, that this very pas- 

 sage of the Latin translation of Benzoni induced 

 Jean De Lery (a Protestant minister who visited 

 Brazil about the same lime) to doubt that Ben- 

 zoni was describing the same weed : for he says 

 "the smell is not unpleasant" — et rC est pas la 

 sentetir mal plaisante ; and he shrewdly lays the 

 blame on the translator, at all events as to the 

 herb used by the Mexicans. {Hist, d'un Voj/age, 

 Src, p. 220., ed. 1600. " Le translateur de Benzo 

 (s!c) a mal creu que ce fust," &c.) 



On the other hand, Benzoni's Jirst edition con- 

 firms or repeats what Oviedo had long before 

 written ; namely, that it was not the herb, but the 

 smoking which the Indians of Hispaniola called ta- 

 bacco. Oviedo says — '■'■ Ahumadas or humo que ellos 

 Uaman tabaco;" and Benzoni says — " Questo /zAreo 

 che e chiemato t^ibacco." Benzoni erred, however, 

 in stating that it was so called by the Mexicans. 

 It is certain that the word tabacco belongs to the 

 language of Hayti or St. Domingo ; in fact, of the 

 islands, and not of the continent. Humboldt is 

 decidedly of this opinion. The Mexicans called 

 the plant yetl, and the Peruvians sayri, whilst its 

 name at Hispaniola was cohobba : its ancient 

 names in other parts of America are too numerous 

 to mention. (Humboldt, Nouv. Esp. ii. 445.; 

 Hernand. lib. v. c. 51. ; Clavig. ii. 227. ; Garcil. 

 lib. ii. c. 25.) 



^ The word petum, originally applied to tobacco 

 in Europe, is the Brazilian petun or pefyn, a 

 word evidently imitating the act of puffing from 

 pipe or cigar ; in fact, it is an onomatope ; and 

 it is curious that this is the only aboriginal name 

 which has survived In Europe together with to- 

 bacco ; for in the Breton and Celtic language the 



* Benzoni nevertheless calls tobacco "a pestiferous 

 and wicked poison from the devil." The same opinion 

 has been learnedly expressed concerning woman ! It is a 

 safer opinion to hold that the devil has no creative power 

 whatever. On the othe'V hand, had Benzoni taken to 

 smoking amongst the Indians, he would have expatiated 

 on the virtues of tobacco, like the monk Thevet and the 

 Protestant Minister De Lery. It was, therefore, as usual, 

 by a mere accident that he abused the weed I 



