94 TOBACCO SMOKING. 



gated together in an irregular mass, which is often found in a hollow 

 in the lower part of the trunk of a tree. The inhabitants of this 

 region have apparently no acquaintance with the uses of wax, and 

 thus differ from the Andaman Islanders, who employ it for caulking 

 the leaks in their canoes and for waxing their bowstrings.^ 



The Solomon Islanders are inordinarily fond of tobacco-smoking^ 

 a habit which prevails with both sexes and almost at all ages. 

 Tobacco has in fact established itself as the principal currency 

 between the trader and the native ; and without it a white man 

 would be as destitute in these islands as the beggar is in more 

 civilized lands. In a village the visitor will sometimes be followed 

 by a knot of little urchins five or six years of age who have slipped 

 down from their mothers' backs to pester him for tobacco ; and I 

 have seen a child in its mother's arms allowed to take the pipe from 

 its parent's lips and pufF away with apparent enjoyment. Should 

 there be a scarcity of tobacco in a village when a ship arrives, the 

 trader may drive a cheap bargain, and the curiosity-seeker may 

 leadily purchase anything he desires. We were able on such occa- 

 sions to obtain, for a piece of tobacco of the size of the thumb-nail, 

 articles, such as fish-hooks, which required for their manufacture 

 days of tedious labour. In the waste-ground of villages a few 

 tobacco plants are often grown. This is very frequently the case in 

 the villages of the islands of Boufrainville Straits, where native- 

 grown tobacco is often preferred to the trade-tobacco. This home- 

 grown tobacco is there known as " brubush." The leaves are never 

 cut up for smoking, but are usually rolled roughly into twists; and 

 when the native is goino- to smoke, he stuffs two or three large 

 pieces into his pipe. Claypipes obtained from the traders are always 

 used. These islanders very raiely make wood pipes for themselves, 

 although they must often see them in the mouths of white men. I 

 never met with a native who, having broken or lost liis clay pipe, 

 had the energy to manufacture a pipe of wood. There is, howevei", 

 such a specimen of native work in the British Museum collection. 

 I could not ascertain any information relative to the introduction of 

 tobacco-smoking. It was, however, probably introduced from the 

 West independently of the influence of the trader. The natives of 

 the Maclay Coast and of the South Coast of New Guinea allege that 

 the habit was unknown two generations ago, and that the seeds of 

 the plant, with the knowledge of tobacco-smoking, have been inti'o- 



1 Journ. Authrop. Inst., vol. VII., p. 403. 



