THE HOME OF THE INDIAN WEED 43 



tortoise-shell, or silver; or they imbibed the soothing 

 pleasures of the ' intoxicating weed called tobacco mingled 

 with liquid amber.' And while thus engaged a troop of 

 almost phantom-like tumblers and jugglers gaily disported 

 themselves before their wondering eyes. The after-dinner 

 smoke, so dear to middle age, is a vestige of that civilisation 

 which, before the onward march of the Spaniards, vanished 

 like the mist of the morning. Our excellent guide through 

 these realms of a shadowy past relates how the Aztecs 

 would smoke after dinner to prepare for the siesta with as 

 much regularity as an old Castilian does now. When dinner 

 was over they rinsed the mouth with scented water, and an 

 officer of the Court would then with much ceremony hand 

 to the king his pipe. They smoked out of pipes made of 

 polished and richly-gilt wood, inhaling the fragrant fumes of 

 tobacco mixed with other aromatic herbs. 



Girolamo Benzoni of Milan took a strong dislike to the 

 Indian weed, and saw in it only a noxious plant whose 

 fumes poisoned the pure breath of heaven. Like every 

 European who visited the newly discovered countries of the 

 West, he had his attention drawn to the herb the Indians 

 loved, and in his History of the New World through 

 some portion of which he travelled in 1642-45,116 describes 

 the tobacco plant as growing in ' bushes, not very large, 

 like reeds, that produce a leaf in shape like that of a 

 walnut, though rather larger.' He says it is greatly 

 esteemed by the natives and the slaves whom the 

 Spaniards have brought from Ethiopia. He then describes 

 the method of preparing it for smoking, which corresponds 

 pretty nearly with the process in operation at the present 

 day in America, and tells us that ' when the leaves are in 

 season they pick them, tie them up in bundles, and 

 suspend them near their fireplaces till they are very dry ; 



