SETCHELL] ABORIGINAL TOBACCOS 399 



only, or at least chiefly, for ceremonial purposes, their use for smok 

 ing generally having been superseded by the trade-tobacco early intro 

 duced by the white traders. It is to the close association of tobacco 

 with the religious and social observances of the various tribes of 

 North American Indians that we owe the continuation of the use, and 

 particularly of the cultivation, of aboriginal tobaccos and the oppor 

 tunity of obtaining first-hand information as to the species employed 

 as well as to the ceremonies connected with their use. For some 

 what over fifteen years I have been collecting information on the 

 subject of the species employed and have importuned every anthro 

 pologist who was luckless enough to come into my circle of acquaint 

 ances to assist in obtaining seed of any possible species of Nicotiana 

 still found to be in aboriginal use. The result has exceeded my 

 original expectations by far, and a number of species which I had 

 imagined to be beyond further proof than mere mention of their 

 employment by one tribe or another have been found still in use and 

 either cultivated or collected wild. Of these, seed has been procured 

 in practically all cases, and I have been able to grow it in the 

 botanical garden at the University of California and assure myself 

 as to the identity. 



The use of narcotics is found to be general wherever they are 

 readily available and it is remarkable how quickly and how widely 

 the use of a narcotic will spread when once introduced. This has 

 been particularly the case with tobacco after the discovery of 

 America, as Tiedemann 1 has so convincingly shown. The extent of 

 the use of the narcotics, tobacco and coca, in the Americas previous 

 to 1492 is well delineated by Wissler. 2 Wissler's chart distinguishes 

 between the areas where tobacco was chewed and those where it was 

 smoked, and it even distinguishes between the areas where the tubular 

 or elbow pipes were smoked and those where cigars or cigarettes 

 were employed. This chart indicates that tobacco was used over the 

 whole of both Americas with the exception of the extreme northern 

 portions of North America and the extreme southern portions of 

 South America. The tribes of North American Indians who were 

 fortunate enough to dwell in a region provided with a native species 



i Geschichte des Tabaks, Frankfurt a M., 1854. 

 - The American Indian, fig. 8, New York, 1917. 



