182 TOBACCO. 



Persia. Teymbeki is smoked in a special apparatus known 

 as the narghileli.* The apparatus is found in every 

 coffee-house and even in a great number of private houses. 

 It resembles somewhat the wash bottle used in labora- 

 tories for washing filters with distilled water, but is often 

 made of metal. The teymbeki is placed in a small 

 reservoir on the top of the flask and burns in contact with 

 a piece of incandescent charcoal. The vapour is drawn 

 through the tube, which passes to the bottom of the 

 water and collects above it, whence it is inhaled through 

 the longer tube.f It is in fact a water-pipe.' 



" Having ascertained then that tumbeki was a species of 

 tobacco, I sought for further confirmation of the statement 

 that it is the produce of N. persica, and wrote on the 

 subject to Professor Hausknecht, who is well known as 

 one of the best authorities on the botany of Persia. He 

 kindly replied as follows : — 



" ' Tumbeki is the produce of Nicotiana rustica, and is 

 almost exclusively used for the water-pipes called kalian 

 or nargbileh. The plant is cultivated throughout the 

 whole of Persia, especially in Ispahan and Shiraz, whence 

 the best kind comes.' 



" But the statement of M. Zanni that tumbeki contains 

 more alkaloid than tobacco, and that of Professor Hausk- 

 necht that tumbeki is the produce of N. rustica, seemed to 

 conflict with the statements in books that N. rustica is 

 less active than N. Tahacum. 



* So called from its resemblance in shape to a narghil or coconut. 



t A full and interesting account of the forms and uses of the varieties 

 of the kalian and narghileh is given in the ' Land of the Lion and the 

 Sun,' p. 29. 



