A TOBACCO BALLET. 119 



the smell." Piscator answers, " the best I can get in 

 London, I assure yon ; " no small recommendation, in 

 an age when much difficulty and expense was attendant 

 on communication with the capital; but it has been 

 well observed " if a man does smoke, let him smoke 

 good tobacco, that no extra and unnecessary offence be 

 given to the ' weaker brethren.' " 



In the middle of the seventeenth century, tobacco 

 formed the subject of a curious ballet at Lisbon, which 

 may be thus briefly described. The scene was laid in 

 the Island of Tobago, the supposed native place of 

 tobacco, and a troop of its inhabitants were introduced 

 chanting in celebration of the good fortune of people 

 to whom the gods had granted a plant so precious. 

 Four priests, taking tobacco in powder from golden 

 boxes pendant from their girdles, cast it in the air to 

 appease tempests. The rest then marched in solemn 

 procession round their idols, with long pipes in their 

 mouths, fumigating them as with incense. A second 

 scene exhibited manufacturers at work, tying up the 

 leaves of the plant, cutting it for the smoker, and 

 pounding it for the snuff-takers. The third and last 

 scene introduced the consumers of the herb, and a 

 general dance, in which all mixed together, and offered 

 pinches from each other's snuff-boxes. The smokers of 

 all nations, in appropriate costume, joined the dance, 

 to indicate the reunion of all peoples and creeds 

 under the powerful influence of tobacco ; the natives 

 leaping among them all till the curtain fell. 



During the prevalence of the Great Plague of 



