ECONOMY IN THE USE OE TOBACCO. 175 



showing ill a remarkable degree how the savage, 

 whose share of hfe's supphes is hmited, economises 

 and turns to account every scrap which falls in his 

 way. The fragments of drift-wood thrown but rarely 

 on this shore are considered with the greatest atten- 

 tion as to the best use to which they may be devoted, 

 and to which they are then adapted with infinite 

 patience and care. A small knife, with a bent blade 

 and a handle generally made of the tip of a deer's 

 horn, is in great use among them, and employed to a 

 surprising extent ; with it they thin down sticks to 

 the required size for whip-handles or walking-staves, 

 and it is this operation which provides wood to mix 

 Avith the tobacco. No chips are hacked off, that 

 would be useless waste. With the fore finger on 

 the back of his queer little knife, the operator runs 

 from one extreme to the other of the stick, in a 

 rapid succession of strokes, detaching each time a 

 gossamer twisted shred, of the same unbroken length 

 as the stick. It is wonderful to see the regularity 

 with which string after string of woody fibre is 

 separated, and the skill and patience — well nigh equal 

 to that of the Chinese, who rubs down a nail to make a 

 needle — employed to reduce the wand to its required 

 proportions. When finished, it leaves the hand of 

 the operator as smoothly rounded and nicely tapered 



