6 ST NICOTINE 



Advancing with measured step the noble Raleigh appears 

 and is greeted with the cry : 



Hail, mighty Raleigh ! to whose name we owe 

 The use and knowledge of this sovereign plant. 



To which the illustrious knight made answer, ' Not so, 

 gentle spirits of the past ; to me it was not given to be the 

 discoverer, or the first to bring to my countrymen a 

 knowledge of the blessed herb whose sobering and soothing 

 virtues lend man strength to bear with tranquility the 

 injustice of the powerful. The honour you would do unto 

 me belongs of right to others who were before me in the 

 fray of battle and adventure. Humble service have I 

 rendered at her shrine, receiving thereby sweet refreshment 

 unstinted, even when on the threshold of thy domain, O 

 mighty Jupiter. 



' Yet, by your leave, I will relate something of the 

 wonderful tales told of this weed by the adventurers who 

 first brought tidings of it to Europe, and of the New World 

 and its people they had discovered in the far-off western 

 seas. 



' The chiefs and headmen of the Indians avow that the 

 herb is a most precious gift of the Great Spirit who created 

 them, and who rules over the affairs of their daily lives. 

 He it was in ages long past, when all the different tribes were 

 warring one against another, had taught them the peace- 

 inspiring virtues of the plant. He it was who, out of a 

 fragment broken from the red rock, had fashioned for their 

 guidance the first peace-pipe. And it came to pass in this 

 wise : The Master of Life, the Great Spirit that broods over 

 creation, descended to the summit of the mountain; he 

 called his children together, and they obedient to the 

 divine command assembled in infinite numbers to hearken 



