SMOKING PIPES 197 



from this region impart to the tobacco a peculiarly delicate 

 flavour. Constantinople is the great mart for the sale of 

 meerschaum, as Vienna is for its manufacture into pipes. 

 The material is so extremely difficult to manipulate that the 

 uncertainty attending its successful manufacture gives a 

 high value to the better kinds. The meerschaum is soaked 

 in water for twenty-four hours and then turned in a lathe. 

 In this process the clay often proves to be too porous, and 

 is on this account rejected : this will happen as many as 

 seven times out of ten. 



