NABCOTIC PLANTS AND STIMULANTS SAFFORD. 393 



down to the eve of Independence, when Patrick Henry won his first triumph 

 in the famous Parson's Cause, in which the price of tobacco furnished the 

 bone of contention, the Indian weed has been strangely implicated with the 

 history of political freedom.' 



Such a certain and steady demand was there for it that, like choc- 

 olate in Mexico, it became the currency of the colony. 



The prices of all articles of merchandise were quotetl in pounds of tobacco. 

 In tobacco taxes were assessed and all wages and salaries were paid. This 

 use of tobacco as a circulating medium and as a standard of values was 

 begun in the earliest days of the colony, when coin was scarce, and the structure 

 of society was simple enough to permit a temporary return toward the primi- 

 tive practice of barter. Under such circumstances tobacco was obviously the 

 article most sure to be used as money .^ It was exchangeable for whatever any- 

 body wanted in the shape of service or merchandise, and it was easily pro- 

 cured from the bountiful earth. * 



COHOBA SNUFF OF THE ANCIENT HAITIANS. 

 (Plates.) 



In addition to tobacco the companions of Columbus encountered 

 another narcotic in Haiti, or Hispaniola, called cohoba. It was 

 taken in the form of snuff, inhaled through the nostrils by means 

 of a bifurcated tube. It was correctly described by Ramon Pane, 

 appointed by the great admiral to report upon the superstitious be- 

 liefs of the islanders, and also by Las Casas, who was an eyewitness 

 to the ceremonies accompanying its use. Subsequent writers, mis- 

 led by Oviedo's incorrect statement that this substance was ignited 

 and its smoke inhaled through the nostrils by the bifurcated tube, 

 confused it with tobacco. It was in reality derived from the seeds 

 of a mimosa-like tree, known botanically as Piptadenia peregrina. 

 That it could not have been tobacco is apparent from the descrip- 

 tion of the physiological effects caused by it. All writers united in 

 declaring that it induced a kind of intoxication or hypnotic state, 

 accompanied by visions which were regarded by the natives as super- 

 natural. While under its influence the necromancers, or priests, were 

 supposed to hold communication with unseen powers, and their in- 

 coherent mutterings were regarded as prophesies or revelations of 

 hidden things. In treating the sick the physicians made use of it 

 to discover the cause of the malady or the person or spirit by whom 

 the patient was bewitched. The snuff was called coxoba in the 

 language of the islahders. This was rendered in the Italian or- 

 thography of the translation of Pane's description, "cogioba," and 

 incorrectly transcribed as "cogiba," or "cojiba." In Spanish or- 

 thography it is written " cojoba." 



iFiske. Old Virginia and her Neighbors, 2: 174. 1898. 



2 It is interesting to note that at a later epoch whisky distilled from maize was 

 used in certain parts of the United States as currency, even for paying the salaries of 

 school teachers and clergymen. 



sFiske, op. cit. p. 216. 



