98 ST NICOTINE 



so impressed by the prevalence of the habit of smoking 

 among all classes, that he made diligent inquiry of the 

 learned of the land respecting its origin; for he felt con- 

 vinced that nothing European, much less American, could 

 possibly have crept into this remote district of the Old 

 World, whose inhabitants were living as their fathers had 

 lived for ages. ' In the East,' he writes, ' it is rare to find 

 a man or a woman who does not smoke. Enter a house, 

 and a smoking-instrument is put into your hand as 

 naturally as you are asked to sit down.' Mr. Walpole had 

 not long to wait before his new friends found means of 

 satisfying his curiosity and of quickening the interest already 

 awakened within him as to the antiquity of the habit. A 

 venerable sage disclosed to his wondering eyes the 

 manuscript aforesaid. It filled over a hundred closely- 

 written pages, and was divided into eight chapters, in the 

 first of which was related the story of Nimrod. The origin 

 of the different opinions for and against tobacco are enlarged 

 upon in its pages ; this, by the way, seems to imply that 

 the Koran had not settled the disputed point ; but then 

 these Hashishins, who had found tobacco a far more 

 grateful comforter than their fiery hashish, were not good 

 Moslems. Unfortunately for Mr. Walpole, the happy 

 owner of the priceless document, this inestimable relic of 

 antiquity, was a bibliomanist whom nothing could induce to 

 part with it : but he tells the reader that it was being 

 copied — a lengthy process. Youthful exuberance of spirit 

 marks Mr. Walpole's joy at the discovery. ' Lovers of the 

 weed,' he exclaims, ' may reasonably hope that the 

 elucidation of the Assyrian history will show us Nimrod 

 making kief over the chibouk, and Semiramis calling for 

 her nargilleh. It would enhance the grace of Cleopatra 

 could we imagine her reclining on a divan of eiderdown 



