146 MODERATE SMOKING. 
means uncommon; for whatever be the business, no matter 
how serious, in which the Turk is engaged, he must smoke 
at it. In the divan, where the grandees of the empire.consult 
together on the most delicate affairs of State, the question 
was once mooted whether the tchbukdes should not be 
excluded from such debates as were of a strictly private 
nature. There was a great diversity of opinion on the sub- 
ject. Politics and reason were on opposite sides. At last it 
was decided that they would not disgrace an ancient national 
usage, but would allow the harmless attendants to enter the 
council-room every now and then to change the pipes. In 
Turkey, pipes and tobacco afford means of distinguishing not 
only the different classes of the community, but even the 
several graduates of rank in the same class. A mushir (mar- 
shal) would find it derogatory to his dignity to smoke out of 
a stem less than two yards in length. The artisan or official 
of a lower rank, would consider it highly unbecoming on his 
part to use one which exceeded the proper proportions of his 
class. A superior stretches his pipe before him to his inferior; 
while the latter must hold his modestly on one side, only 
alone the end of the mouth-piece to peep out of his closed 
st. ‘ 
“The pasha has the right to puff out his smoke before 
him like a steam engine, while his inferiors are only allowed 
to breathe forth a light curl of smoke, and that must be let 
off backwards. Not to smoke at all in the presence of a 
superior, is held the most delicate homage which ean be paid 
him. A son, for instance, acts in this manner in the presence 
of his father, and only such a one is considered to be well 
brought up who declines to smoke even after his father has 
repeatedly invited him to do so. The fair sex in the East is 
scarcely less addicted to the use of this weed. 
“The girl of twelve years old smokes a cigarette of the 
thickness of pack-thread. When she has attained her four- 
teenth or fifteenth year, and is already marriageable, she is 
allowed to indulge her penchant at will, which is forbidden 
when younger. After this age the diameter of the cigarette 
increases year by year; and when a lady has reached the 
mature age of twenty-four, no one sees anything remarkable 
in her smoking a modest little chibouque as she sits on the 
lower divan of the harem. Elderly matrons—and in Turkey 
every lady is an elderly matron in her fortieth year—are 
passionately devoted to this enjoyment. The pipe-bowls and 
stems always remain of the size appropriated by etiquette :to 
