CHAPTER IV. 



TOBACCO-PIPES, CIGARS, AND THE SMOKER'S 

 PARAPHERNALIA. 



The " Fairy pipe " of Ireland may be safely accepted 

 as the most ancient form of the tobacco-pipe used in 

 the British Islands. This popular name with the 

 Irish peasant is sometimes changed for that of " Danes' 

 pipes." The Scottish peasantry, with the same feel- 

 ing, term these minute receptacles for tobacco " Elfin 

 pipes ; " and with equal desire to antedate their his- 

 tory, call them also " Celtic pipes." This popular love 

 for associating old things with the most ancient times, 

 or with supernatural beings, is equally the result of a 

 love of the marvellous, inherent in vulgar minds. There 

 are also persons of poetic temperament, who by no 

 means deserve to be classed among these ; but who, 

 from their mental conformation, prefer poetic dreams 

 to prosy realities, and who find no difficulty in believ- 

 ing an assertion that upsets a generally received fact, 

 in preference to the fact itself if supported by a hun- 

 dred proofs, any one of which is stronger than those 

 on which they build their theories. Such persons have 



