TOBACCO-PLANT. 429 



company him to a place where he knew they could procure 

 some good wine; and having led him pretty near to the 

 place where his people awaited him, he seized the man by 

 the collar. The officer was a little surprised at first, but 

 soon recollecting that he had heard the Sultan sometimes 

 travelled about in disguise, he concluded it must be he ; 

 and seeing no other mode of escape, he suddenly drew forth a 

 club which hung at his girdle, and gave the Sultan so violent 

 a blow as felled him to the earth, and ran away as fast as 

 he could. The Sultan, enraged at the failure of his inten- 

 tions, issued a proclamation, that he esteemed the man who 

 had given the blow as a brave fellow ; and that if he would 

 present himself, he should be handsomely rewarded. The 

 man mistrusted the Sultan, however, and was not to be 

 found. The nephew of this Sultan was equally severe upon 

 this subject. He beheaded two men in one day for smoking 

 in the streets of Constantinople. Some persons said, be- 

 cause, walking through a street where some Turks were 

 smoking, the smell of the Tobacco was offensive to him. 

 Whatever was the cause, Murad never pardoned any one 

 detected in using it. Sometimes he had them hanged, with 

 Tobacco round the neck ; at others, with a pipe through 

 the nose. Thevenot supposes the Sultan to have been so 

 peremptory on this head, on account of the great ravages 

 made by fire in the streets of Constantinople, often occasioned 

 by men going to sleep with their pipes in their mouths*. 



Philips, in his poem on Cyder, speaks in high commenda- 

 tion of Tobacco : 



" The Indian weed, unknown to ancient times, 

 Nature's choice gift, whose acrimonious fume 

 Extracts superfluous juices, and refines 

 The blood distempered from its noxious salts ; 

 Friend to the spirits, which with vapours bland 



* Thevenot's Voyage de Levant,, Part I. p. 119. 



