52 The Soverane Herbe 



interesting to have medical opinion as to the effect 

 of juvenile smoking in the East on the physique. 



In India the cultivation of tobacco is free and 

 unhampered by Government regulations and duties. 

 It is general throughout the peninsula. When the 

 inhabitants of the Himalayan districts are without 

 pipes they make tunnels in the snow, and lighting 

 a little tobacco in one end, they inhale the smoke 

 at the other. The wild men of Ceylon, who are 

 scarcely more than animals, suck up the smoke of 

 tobacco from their hands. Doubling up the hand, 

 they protect the palm with a green leaf, on which they 

 place and light some tobacco ; raising his hand to 

 his mouth, the savage sucks in the consoling smoke. 



In Persia the cigarette has supplanted the pipe 

 and the narghile ; the lowest peasant rolls his own 

 papillos and smokes incessantly. In Turkey, too, 

 the cigarette is the only smoke. The Egyptians still 

 smoke, though tobacco is no longer cultivated in the 

 country. It is difficult now to dissociate the Orient 

 from tobacco. The lawfulness of smoking to the 

 Moslem has often been disputed, but is now generally 

 allowed. But the Mahdi, Mahomet Achmet, who 

 overcame General Gordon, forbade tobacco to his 

 followers, as contrary to the Koran. 



The Emperor Menelik of Abyssinia, who claims 

 descent from Prester John, has recently forbidden 

 tobacco to his subjects. Seeing some Englishmen 

 with their pipes, and noticing their air of comfort, he 

 decided to try tobacco for himself. He called for a 

 pipe, and on some strong tobacco made his first 

 essay. Alas ! the herb knows not kingship, and the 



