166 ST NICOTINE 



beggar's happiness ; he was dragged before the tribunal, and 

 condemned to the torture of having a hole pierced through 

 the cartilage of his nose, and a pipe inserted therein. 

 Then, in order to render the punishment more impressive 

 to the multitude, he was seated on the back of an ass with 

 his face to the tail, and driven through the streets of the 

 city, while criers proclaimed his offence and its merited 

 punishment, according to the law of the Sultan. Not less 

 cruel were the punishments inflicted upon Russian smokers, 

 who, under the Tsar Michael Fedorowitz, were publicly 

 knouted for using tobacco in any form ; in some instances 

 their nostrils were split open. If guilty of a second offence, 

 death alone could wipe out the crime. The ambassadors 

 of the Duke of Holstein, who visited Moscow in 1634, relate 

 that they were eye-witnesses of a public exhibition of this 

 kind, where eight men and one woman were punished with 

 the knout for selling tobacco. By way of palliating this 

 Russian atrocity, they were informed that houses in Moscow 

 had been set on fire by smokers falling asleep and dropping 

 their lighted pipes. 



Oppression, however, like persecution in another sphere, 

 brought succour to the smoker ; for, despite every form of 

 opposition and punishment, men quietly went on comforting 

 themselves with the weed, until at last their bitterest foes 

 became their best friends, and gratefully acknowledged 

 the benigh sway of St Nicotine. 



There is a peculiar interest, not without instruction, in 

 observing the change that came over governments with 

 regard to the consumption of tobacco. One after another 

 they began to recognise a new and most useful virtue in the 

 outcast weed, one which had too long remained hidden. 

 Straightway they took the exotic under their paternal protec- 

 tion, and handsomely were they rewarded for their acknow- 



