8 The Soverane Herbe 



whether it be forked or merely a hollow cane, is 

 called tabaco by the Indians, who do not give this 

 name to the herb, nor to the stupor into which they 

 fall, as some have erroneously supposed.' 



On his homeward voyage Columbus had discovered 

 an island Y-shaped, like the Indian pipe, and he 

 therefore christened it with the same name — Tobago. 

 As the iirst quantities of the herb introduced into 

 Europe came from this island, it came, according to 

 one authority, to be called tobacco. But it is not so 

 called from the island, nor the island from the herb, 

 but in reality from the pipe by which the Indians 

 inhaled it. Oviedo's warning that tabaco did not 

 mean the herb but the pipe was too late. Tabaco, 

 the name of the pipe, became the name of the herb. 

 ' A pipe of tobacco ' is thus, etymologically speaking, 

 a senseless redundancy ; it is literally a pipe of a pipe. 

 Before Oviedo's explanation, the doubts as to whether 

 tobacco is called from a place in Yucatan, from the 

 island of Tobago, or from Tobasco in the Gulf of 

 Florida fade into nothingness. Tobacco derives its 

 name from the first pipe. 



The native name of the herb, indeed, varied in 

 every part of America, though its use was common 

 to all parts of the continent. The Carribees called 

 it cohiba, the natives of Virginia uppowoc, and the 

 Brazilians petun. In Mexico it was called piecelt, 

 and in other parts it was termed yoli. 



In every part of the New World European ex- 

 plorers found that smoking was commonly practised. 

 Francisco Lorez de Gormara, who accompanied 

 Cortez to Mexico, describes smoking as general in 



