386 sturtevant's notes on edible plants 



roll of leaves of which they were inhaling the smoke. Yet it has been maintained by some, 

 as Don UUva, a Spanish writer, 1787, that the custom of smoking tobacco is of much 

 greater antiqtiity than the date of the discovery of America, and Le Conte, 1859,^ deems 

 this probably true. Yet the absence of the mention of a custom so peculiar as smoking 

 by all the earlier writers and travelers seems conclusive evidence against such assertions. 



The word tobacco, says Hiunboldt,' belongs to the ancient language of Hayti and 

 Santo Domingo. It did not properly denote the herb but the tube through which the smoke 

 was inhaled. The name of the tobacco pipe in the Delaware language was haboca, and 

 tobacco in some form or other was used by almost all the tribes of the American continent 

 from the northwest coast to Patagonia.' It was observed in use among the New England 

 tribes;*, ' among the Indians of the whole eastern coast by the early colonists; ' among the 

 Eskimos of the northwest, " who swallow the smoke and revel in a temporary elysixmi; " 

 among the Konigas for chewing and snufifing; among the Ingaliks of the Yukon, who smoke 

 and snufi; and among the Columbians.' The Snake Indians cultivated,* it and the Cali- 

 fornia Indians also planted it in gardens as early as 1775.* In general, the medicine-pipe 

 is a sacred pledge of friendship among all the northwestern tribes. The Aztecs smoked 

 tobacco in pipes after meals,'" inhaling the smoke, and also took the dried leaf in the pulver- 

 ized form of snuff." 



Among the Nahua natives, says Bancroft,** three kinds of tobacco were used, the 

 yetl, signifying tobacco in general, the picycti and the quauyetl. Columbus foimd it in 

 use in Yucatan. Humboldt *' says tobacco has been cultivated from time immemorial 

 by all the native people of the Orinoco, and, at the period of the conquest, the habit of 

 smoking was foimd to be spread alike over both North and South America. The Indians 

 of Peru, according to De la Vega," did not smoke it but used it in the form of snuff for 

 medicinal purposes. 



Cortez '^ seems to be the first European who saw the plant, in 15 19, at Tobaco, a prov- 

 ince of Yucatan, and it is asserted by some that he sent several plants to Spain this year 

 and from this circiunstance the plant derived its name. It seems certain that if the plant 

 was then introduced, it did not became an object of commerce and seems not to have 



' Amer. Journ. Pharm. Sept. 1 859. 

 'Humboldt, A. Trap. 2:506. 1889. 



Prescott, W. H. Conq. Mex. 1:154 note. 1843. 



Mourt Relation 230. Mass. Hist. See Coll. 8: 1802. 

 'Young, A. Chron. Pilgr. ^dj,. 1841. 



Stille, A. Therap. Mat. Med. 2:360. 1874. 



' Bancroft, H. H. Native Races 1:76, 133, 199, 1875. 



Irving, W. Astoria z^i. 1849. 



Bancroft, H. H. Native Races 1:354 note. 1875. 

 Prescott, W. H. Conq. Mex. 2:126. 1843. 

 " Prescott, W. H. Conq. Peru 1:140. i860. 

 " Bancroft, H. H. Native Races 2:287. 1882. 

 Humboldt, A. Trai;. 2:507. 1889. 

 " Vega Roy. Comment, i : HakL Soc. Ed. 188. 1869. 

 ^^ Journ. Agr. 1:756. 1829. 



