Chap, xiv.] CURIOUS MODE OF SMOKING. 307 



gin bottles, of which there were plenty lying about the camp, 

 brought from the settlement. 



The most prized possession of these Blacks is, however, the 

 bamboo pipe, of which there were several in the camp. The 

 bamboos are procured by barter from the Murray islanders, 

 who visit Cape York from time to time, and the tobacco is 

 smoked in them by the blacks in nearly the same curious 

 manner as that in vogue amongst the Dalrymple Islanders. 

 No doubt the Australians have learnt to smoke from the 

 Murray Islanders.* 



The tobacco-pipe is a large joint of bamboo, as much as 

 two feet in length and three inches in diameter. There is a 

 small round hole on the side at one end and a larger hole in 

 the extremity of the other end. A small cone of green leaf is 

 inserted into the smaller round hole and filled with tobacco. 



BAMBOO TOBACCO-PIPE USED BY THE NATIVES OF CAPE YORK. 



which is lighted at the top as usual. A man, or oftener a 

 woman, opening her mouth wide covers the cone and lighted 

 tobacco with it and applies her lips to the bamboo all round 

 it, thus having the leaf cone and burning tobacco entirely 

 within her mouth. She then blows and forces the smoke into 

 the cavity of the bamboo, keeping her hand over the hole at 

 the other end, and closing the aperture as soon as the bamboo 

 is full. 



The leaf cone is then withdrawn and the pipe handed to the 

 smoker, who, putting his hand over the bottom hole to keep 

 in the smoke, sucks at the hole in which the leaf was inserted, 

 and uses his hand as a valve meanwhile to allow the requisite 

 air to enter at the other end. The pipe being empty the leaf 

 is replaced and the process repeated. The smoke is thus 

 inhaled quite cold. The pipes are ornamented by the Blacks 

 with rude drawina;s. 



The bamboo pipes of Dalrymple Island are described as 

 having bowls made of smaller bamboo tubes instead of the 

 leaf cone. There are many such in museums. Possibly the 

 leaf is only a makeshift. The Dalrymple Islanders, however, 



* J. Beete Jukes. "Narrative of the Surveying Voyage of H.TM.S. 

 • Fly/" Vol. I., p. 65; Loudon, Boonc, 1847. 



