TOBACCO AND ITS HISTOnY, 9 



It is also given upon good autliority, that tlioso tribos wlio wor- 

 sluppcd devils from time iinineniorial, used Tobacco in tlie most 

 astonisliiug manner, their priests getting drunk on its smoke, 

 and then holding connnunion with their deities, levealing tlie 

 responses of their infernal gods, after tlie fit of intoxication had 

 })assed. 



Tobacco was, moreover, used in otlier forms of worsliip, and 

 considered essential to the existence of "the poor Indian." 

 Archer records that as Champlain stood by the C'haudiere Falls 

 his Indian companions threw votive od'erings of Tobacco into 

 the seething caldron to propitiate tlie Spirit of the Waters. 

 Hannay testiKes that in oMen times an Indian l>rave was 

 required to ha\e pipe and Tobacco among his possessions in 

 order to be eligiljle for a wife. 



In warfare it is well known that the Indian warriors poisoned 

 their arrows with nifotine, and endeavored to repulse their foes 

 by spurting Tobacco juice into their eyes. 



(Virtier, writing of Canada, gives a gliuij^se of tlie extent of 

 Tobacco using by the Indians in ir'.'')5. Ife desciibes it thus: 



"When; grows a certain lierbe, whereof in summer they 

 make j)ro\ ision for all the yeere, and only men use it, and lirst 

 they cause it to bo dried in the sunn(>, then weare it on their 

 nocks wrap})ed in a biMstio's skin, iiiadi^ like a little bagge, with 

 a liollow piece of stone or v.-ood like a l>ipe; then when they 

 })leaHe they make jjowdcr of it, ai^d then put it in one of the 

 ends of said cornets or pi[>es, laying a ccal of fiie upon it, and 

 at the other end smoke so long tliat tliey till their liodies full of 

 smoke, till that it comes out at their mouth and nostrel;;, even 

 as out of the tounel of a chimney." 



Satisfied that the savage '•'-origines of America were once 



THK nilKF IlKPOSITOIUES OF TlIK TOIJACCO PLANT, 



on the Western Continent, the (juestion arises, How did they 

 obtain a knowledge of its uses and sacred import? 



Tiiose who attempt to sol\e this problem contend that the 



