52 TOBACCO : ITS HISTORY. 



open at the front. He takes a leaf of tobacco, 

 spreads it out smoothly before him on the bench, 

 and cuts it to a form somewhat like the gores 

 or stripes of a balloon : — this is the " bunch- 

 wrapper." He then takes up a few fragments 

 of tobacco-leaf consisting of small cuttings, lays 

 them on the bunch-wrapper and rolls them into 

 the latter — thus making the shape of a cigar. 

 He next places this cigar against a gauge or 

 guide formed of a piece of iron, and cuts it to a 

 given length as ordered. Finally, he lays a 

 narrow strip of leaf, the " outside," similar in 

 shape to the bunch-wrapper, upon the bench, and 

 rolls the cigar spirally into it, pasting the tip-end 

 with paste coloured with chicory, or with gum- 

 tragacanth, to prevent the outside from becoming 

 loosened. All this is but the work of a few 

 seconds — even with the most reluctant tobacco 

 The cigars are then either set aside to dry spon- 

 taneously — or, which is almost invariably the 

 case, they are dried by the heat of a stove. 



In this simple synthesis of the " weed" there 

 is much that concerns the smoker : — for it 

 follows that, 



