SPANISH CIGARS. 217 



kiss of a pretty girl, will sustain a man for a day 

 without eating." So constant is the cigar in Spain 

 that it has banished the pipe from genteel society. 

 Muleteers and persons of that class occasionally 

 indulge in a short pipe ; hut it is seldom used even by 

 the lower orders. 



Cigars are classified into white (Tabaco Blanco), 

 made from the Havanna and Virginia leaf; and 

 black (Tobaco Negro), made from Brazilian tobacco. 

 The paper of which cigarettes are made is of a 

 peculiar structure, porous like India paper, and 

 smouldering without smoke. The best is made at 

 Valencia, and is sold for the use of such persons as 

 may wish to cut up their own tobacco and form 

 cigarettes, in small books, bound in a coloured or plain 

 cover, and from which a leaf, sufficient to form a 

 cigarette, may be torn as wanted. 



The Havanna cigars have been justly famed as the 

 finest made. The best tobacco leaves for their fabri- 

 cation grow in the Island of Cuba ; and the primest 

 were formerly reserved for the King of Spain, who 

 used them as presents for his officials. The finest 

 leaves are carefully culled for the cover or outside, 

 in which are rolled the smaller or torn leaves. The 

 exportation of leaves unmanufactured was once for- 

 bidden, nor could the planter manufacture for himself ; 

 he was compelled to give up his growth to the govern- 

 ment commissioner, who allowed him its value, and 

 manufactured them in the Boyal Warehouse. The 

 \Havanna cigars vary in size and thickness ; one par- 



