222 SNUFF-BOXES. 
“Sir Plume of amber snuff-box justly vain, 
And the nice conduct of a clouded cane; 
With earnest eyes, and round, unthinking face, 
He first the snuff-box open’d, then the case.” 
The mode of “tapping the box” before opening was char- 
acteristic of the beaux and fops of this‘peridd; and is com- 
“mnented on in a poem on snuff :— ee NNT ele i 
“The lawyer so grave, when he opens his case, 
In obscurity finds itishid, 
, Till the bright glass of knowledge illumines his face, 
As he gives the three taps on the lid." *~“* 
Spain, Portugal, and France early in the, Seventeenth 
Century became noted as the producers of the ‘finest kinds 
_of snuff. In Spain and Portugal it was the favorite mode of 
using tobacco, and rare kinds were compounded and sold at 
enormous prices. Its use in France by the fair sex is thus 
commented on by a French writer:—: * 
“Everything in France depends upon Za mode ; and it has 
t 
DEMI-JOURNEES. 
pleased Ja mode to patronize this disgusting custom, and 
carry about with them small boxes which they term ‘demi- 
journées.” 
The most expensive materials were employed in the manu- 
facture of snuff-boxes, such as agate, mosaics, and all kinds 
of rare wood, while many were of gold, studded with 
diamonds. Some kinds were made of China mounted in 
metal, and were very fanciful. In “Pandora’s Box,” a 
“Satyr against Snuff,” 1719, may be found the following 
description of the snuff-boxes then in vogue: = 
