48 The Soverane Herbe 



Schoolmasters smoke while teaching, and a scholar 

 who earns his tutor's satisfaction is rewarded with 

 permission to smoke. If a whole class distinguishes 

 itself, general permission to light up is given and the 

 room is soon filled with smoke. 



Throughout South America smoking is general by 

 both sexes in all places. The Patagonians practise 

 the ancient mode described by the first Spanish 

 travellers in Mexico, swallowing and retaining the 

 smoke in a recumbent attitude. The Paraguayans 

 chew chiefly. 



In Cuba, the garden of the finest tobacco in the 

 world, smoking is incessant. As befits the birthplace 

 of Havanas, the pipe is never seen ; cigars and 

 cigarettes, as in the days of Columbus, are alone 

 smoked ; indeed, fumer un tabaco means ' to smoke 

 a cigar.' Men and women smoke incessantly except 

 when they are in church or their beds. Old women 

 puff solid consolation from big black cigars, while the 

 younger ones whiff the gayer cigarette. The boy 

 sellers of sugar-cakes, cocoanuts, lottery tickets and 

 the bootblacks ask your custom between puffs from 

 their cigarettes. Railway porters and officials emit 

 more smoke than their engines ; negroes smoke 

 harder and more constantly than they work ; priests 

 are as devoted to tobacco as to theology. In fact, the 

 people smoke always, except when eating and sleep- 

 ing. ' I smoke but little,' says a Cuban ; ' only four 

 or five cigars a day and a few cigarettes — a couple of 

 packets.' But there are twenty cigarettes in a packet, 

 composed of black tobacco cut coarser than that for 

 pipes in England. Fully 30 per cent, of the cigars 



