112 TOBACCO : ITS HISTORY. 



of hebenon," if you like — is thus deprived of 

 its poison, and rendered completely innocuous 

 by this provision of nature in the mouth ; and 

 nothing but " a harmless oil " remains, if it does 

 remain, in the mouth. The bitter taste results 

 from the harmless gums which form the largest 

 constituents of the leaf— a property which is said 

 to be available for tanning. 



Now this reasoning is most strikingly confirmed 

 by a statement quoted by Joubert to the follow- 

 ing effect : — 



"When a stranger an-ives in Greenland he is imme- 

 diately suiTounded by a crowd of the natives, who ask the 

 favour of sucking the empjTeumatic oil in the reservoir of 

 his pipe ! And it is stated that the Greenlanders smoke 

 only for the pleasure of drinking that detestable juice which 

 is so disgusting to our European smokers." 



The fact is, that it is no longer the poison it was 

 before : the alkaline poison has been neutralised 

 by the acid of the saliva, whose condensed mois- 

 ture makes up "that detestable juice" — per- 

 fectly harmless, at least not poisonous — very- 

 bitter and nauseous to Europeans, but doubtless 

 quite as palatable as their train-oil : indeed, there 

 ought to be no quarrelling about taste in anything 



