202 The Soverane Herbe 



making. The actual manufacture is done by Greeks 

 and Russians, who turn out the rolls of tobacco as if 

 by magic. A good hand can make 3,000 a day, 

 and can command £$ or £4 a week in England, for, 

 despite the competition of machines, there is a demand 

 for handmade cigarettes, and good makers are rare. 



Egyptian cigarettes are quite a misnomer. True, 

 they are made in the land of Pharaoh, but they can 

 produce no other claim to the title. Since 1891 the 

 cultivation of tobacco has been prohibited in Egypt, 

 but Egyptian cigarettes still hold their own as the 

 best on the market. The tobacco of which they are 

 made is grown in and imported from Turkey ; the 

 paper comes from the factories in France, Italy, and 

 Austria, while Greeks combine the two into Egyptian 

 cigarettes. It is their unique flavour, produced by 

 methods known in Egypt alone, that constitutes their 

 excellence. The annual export of cigarettes from 

 Egypt is about 14,000,000, valued at;^230,ooo. 



In France the Government commenced the manu- 

 facture of cigarettes in 1843. The machines now 

 used turn out 250 a minute, the factories being 

 situated at Paris, Bordeaux, Marseilles, Mortaix, 

 Nancy, Nantes and Toulon. The tobacco, which 

 has been aptly described as consisting of scorched 

 linen flavoured with assafoetida and glue, is very 

 coarsely cut, more so than for the pipe in England, 

 and very dark. To reduce its strength it is steeped 

 in water. The resultant cigarette is indescribably 

 horrible; English smokers fail to recognise it as 

 tobacco. Yet of these cigarettes France smokes some 

 300,000,000,000 a year ; in any form but that of the 



