14 FIELD, FOREST AND FARM 



ered a new way to use tobacco : some one conceived 

 the idea of reducing the leaf to a dry powder and 

 stuffing it into the nostrils, sniffing with each pinch 

 of the powdered substance. The Indian had dis- 

 covered smoking tobacco; the European in his turn 

 invented snuff, 



' ' Spain and Portugal numbered their smokers and 

 snuff-takers by the thousand when, in 1560, tobacco 

 made its- first appearance in France. Nicot, French 

 ambassador at Lisbon, sent as an object of curiosity 

 to his sovereign queen, Catherine de Medicis, some 

 seeds of the fashionable plant and a box of tobacco 

 in powdered form. Charmed with this gift, the 

 queen quickly contracted the habit of taking snuff. 

 To please her, tobacco was cultivated, and snuff- 

 takers soon became numerous in all the provinces. 

 It was said that a certain great personage of the 

 period took as much as three ounces daily. He cer- 

 tainly must have had his nose well tanned. 



"From one nation to another the use of tobacco 

 gradually spread, but not without serious opposi- 

 tion. The Turks are to-day passionately addicted to 

 smoking, extremely fond of their long pipes; yet 

 hear what sort of a reception they at first gave to 

 tobacco. Against smokers and snuff-takers their 

 emperor, Amurat, issued an edict severe to the point 

 of cruelty. Every delinquent was condemned to re- 

 ceive fifty strokes with the rod on the soles of his 

 feet." 



"That ought to have driven tobacco out of the 

 country in short order," remarked Jules. 



