144 SMOKING IN PERU. 
chewing of tobacco is universally repudiated, being regarded 
as the height of vulgarity. The Turkish tobacco is of fine 
flavor, and commands high prices. It is very much in appear- 
ance like the fine cut chewing tobacco so extensively used at 
home.” 
The cigars made by the Austrian Government, which are 
the only description to be had are very inferior, and it is not 
to be wondered that the cigarette is so generally used in 
preference. 
The smoking of cigarettes by the ladies is quite common, 
especially among the higher classes. In no part of the world 
is smoking so common as in South America; here all classes 
and all ages use the weed. Smoking is encouraged in the 
family and the children are early taught the custom. A 
traveler who has observed this custom more particularly than 
any other, says of the use of tobacco in Peru :— 
“Scarcely in any regions of the world is smoking so com- 
mon as in Peru. ‘The rich as well as the poor, the old man 
as well as the boy, the master as well as the servant, the lady 
as well as the negroes who wait on her, the young -maiden as 
well as the mother—all smoke and never cease smoking, 
except when eating, or sleeping, orin church. Social distinc 
tions are as numerous and as marked in Peru as anywhere 
else, and there is the most exclusive pride of color and of 
blood. But differences of color and of rank are wholly dis- 
regarded when a light for a cigar is requested, a favor which 
it is not considered a liberty to ask, and which it would be 
deemed a gross act of incivility to refuse. It is chiefly 
cigarritos which are smoked. 
“The cigarrito, as is well known, is tobacco cut fine and 
dexterously wrapped in moist maize leaves, in paper, or in 
straw. Only the laborers on the plantations smoke small 
clay pipes. Dearer than the cigarritos are the cigars, which 
are not inferior to the best Havanna. Everywhere are met 
the cigarrito-twisters. Cleverly though they manipulate; 
cleanliness is not their besetting weakness. But in Pera, 
and in other parts of South America, cleanliness is not held 
in more esteem than in Portugal and Spain.” 
The Turks have long been noted as among the largest con- 
sumers of tobacco as well as using the most magnificent of 
smoking implements. The hookah is in all respects the most 
expensive and elaborate machine (for so it may be called) 
