3n2 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1897. 



Many of the early Americau peoples, iucluding the Aztecs, are de- 

 scribed as inhaling smoke for the purj)oseof intoxicating themselves— a 

 practice yet indulged in at various i)laces. Herodotus also says " that 

 when a man attains great age all his kinsmen meet and sacrifice him," 

 and "that they worship the sun of all the gods." ' 



These rites of the Messagetae are similar to the practices of certain 

 American Indians. That similar conditions naturally engender like 

 practices among races in a primitive stage of development has been 

 observed all over the world. This is noticeable in the primitive tools of 

 all ancient races, there being scarcely an exception to the rule. Accord- 

 ing to Strabo, the Mysians were eaters of smoke — " Krapnobates." ' 



This reference, however, is rather a suggestion found in a note of the 

 French translation of Strabo than of Strabo himself, who really says 

 " Posidonius relates that the Mysians religiously abstain from eating 

 anything that had life, and consequently from cattle, wherefore they 

 are considered a religious people and called Capnobatae.*' ' Plutarch 

 says in De Fluvius, " in Thrace near the Hebrus there grows a plant 

 which resembles the origanum [wild marjoram] ; the inhabitants of 

 that country throw the leaves on a brazier and inhale the smoke, which 

 intoxicates them." 



Pliny says, " Sandarach, taken in the form of a fumigation, also with 

 cedar, has a remedial etfect."^ This plant is a medium-sized tree {Cal- 

 litris quadrivalvis or Thuya articulata) of the pine family from Xorth 

 Africa, and yields a resinous gum, which, when heated or siirinkled on 

 burning coals, emits an agreeable balsamic odor and calls to mind the 

 liquid amber used as a mixture with tobacco by the Aztecs. The 

 Aztecs were described as burning incense and liquid amber and mix- 

 ing sweet-smelling substances with burning herbs quite often whin 

 reference to what we now denominate " smoking " was intended. Eefer- 

 ence to the cedar being used in fumigation calls to mind that its bark 

 is smoked at the present time by certain American tribes. 



Pliny further says that Ai)polodorus (a naturalist of the first century) 

 mentions as a remarkable fact that the barbarians, " by inhaling the 

 fumes of chameleuce [colts foot] at the mouth thereby diminish the 

 volume of the spleen."' The term "inhalation" suggests something 

 more than a " fumigation," especially when the further recommenda- 

 tion is made of employing the smoke of "dried cow dung" as being 

 remarkably good for phthisis when inhaled through a reed,'' and "that 

 chameleuce, having its root burnt upon cypress charcoal, the smoke ol 

 which is good when inhaled by the aid of a funnel or reed." ' 



' Herodotus, Book I, p. 93, translated liy Ilenry Gary, New York, 1863. 



- Strabo, Book YII, p. 3. 



^Thc Geography of Strabo, Book VII, Chap. 3, p. 454, Bohn edition, London, 1854. 



■•The Natural History of I'liny, Book VI, p. 220, Bohn edition, London, 1866. 



« Idem, Book IV, p. 362. 



^•Idem, Book V, p. 356. 



' Idem, Book V, pj). 55, 164. 



