STRAY LEAVES FROM THE WEED 161 



these were more commonly used (and perhaps still are), as 

 the leaves of rhubarb, dock, burdock, plantain, oak and 

 elm, also chickory and cabbage leaves steeped in tar-oil. 



If the manufacturers of these and less innocent 

 ' mixtures ' really find themselves unable to withstand the 

 pressure from without for a cheap smoke, let them confine 

 their sophisticating ingenuity to simple vegetable products, 

 such, for instance, as satisfied Dame Ursula. Coltsfoot or 

 the leaves of the lettuce, being slightly narcotic, would 

 form a harmless make-belief for the good folk who 

 persuade themselves that they could not sleep a wink were 

 they deprived of their evening comfort. Ages ago both 

 Greeks and Romans, according to Dioscorides and Pliny, 

 found comfort in smoking through a reed or pipe the dried 

 leaves of coltsfoot, which relieved them of old coughs and 

 difficult breathing. We can picture the legionary in 

 Britain's bleak atmosphere, while pacing the Roman Wall, 

 trying to console himself in his lonely vigil with the vapour 

 from his ' elphin pipe,' fragments of which have been found 

 among the ruins of those early memorials to the Scots' 

 persistent determination to travel southwards. And as to 

 the lettuce, it has been famous since the time of Galen 

 (Claudius Galenus), who asserts that he found relief from 

 sleeplessness by taking it at night. Regardless of these 

 things, the Nicotian epicure of to-day enjoys the inestimable 

 advantage of luxuriating in the delicate aroma of the 

 Cuban leaf, while fancying himself wafted on his upward 

 way to Nirvana. The charming simplicity that leads to 

 this ideal conception of existence is most refreshing ; the 

 being so lost to the outer world can hardly be blamed if he 

 says rude things when compelled to touch Mother Earth. 



But King James had not yet done with tobacco. A 

 monarch of his remarkable idiosyncrasy, as displayed in his 



II 



