'216 TOBACCO-PIPES, CIGARS, ETC. 



ladies smoking, Stephens, in his Incidents of Travel in 

 Central America, says : " I am sorry to say that, 

 generally, the ladies of Central America, not excepting 

 Guatemala, smoke — married ladies, puros, or all 

 tobacco ; and unmarried, cigars, or tobacco wrapped 

 in paper or straw. Every gentleman carries in his 

 pocket a silver case, with a long string of cotton, steel, 

 and flint, and one of the offices of gallantry is to strike 

 a light ; by doing it well, he may kindle a flame in a 

 lady's heart ; at all events, to do it bunglingly would 

 be ill bred. I will not express my sentiments on 

 smoking as a custom for the sex. I have recollections 

 of beauteous lips profaned. Nevertheless, even in this 

 I have seen a lady show her prettiness and refinement, 

 barely touching the straw with her lips, as it were 

 kissing it gently and taking it awa} r . When a gentle- 

 man asks a lady for a light, she always removes the 

 cigar from her lips." 



The puros mentioned is, as its name implies, a cigar 

 entirely formed of the tobacco leaf. The papelotos is 

 wrapped in paper, and sometimes in the thin dry leaf 

 of maize. The modern Spaniards are quite as fond 

 of cigars, and in the Album d'un Soldat pendant la 

 Campagne d'Espagne en 1823 (Paris, 1829), is an 

 amusing picture of a ball-room scene at Ecisa, in 

 which a fat Spanish countess is performing a fandango 

 while she smokes her cigar, of which she is reported to 

 have consumed several during the evening. 



The Spaniards have a proverb to this effect : 

 " A paper cigarette, a glass of fresh water, and the 



