OF THE OLD AND NEW WORLD. 241 



acknowledged to be of comparatively recent introduction, when we 

 call to remembrance that that strange people proceeded Europe in 

 wood engraving, printing, the compass, and others of the most 

 important of modern discoveries, there would be no just cause of 

 surprise should it be proved that to them also we must ascribe such 

 merit as pertains to the initiative in the uses to which tobacco is ap- 

 plied. Such evidence, however, must not be too hastily accepted; 

 for a profoundly scientific botanist, though an altogether trustworthy 

 authority in relation to the habitat of the plant, may be very little 

 qualified to pronounce an opinion on the value of such Chinese 

 monumental evidence as Dr. Meyen loosely refers to under the 

 designation of " very old sculptures." 



The Koran has been appealed to, and its modern versions even fur- 

 nish the American name. A traditional prophecy of Mahomet, is also 

 quoted by Sale, which while it contradicts the assumed existence 

 of tobacco in his time, foretells that: "in the latter days there 

 shall be men bearing the name of moslem. but not really such, and 

 they shall smoke a certain weed which shall be called tobacco !"* 

 If the prophecy did r.ot bear on the face of it such unmistakeable 

 evidence of being the invention of some moslem ascetic of later times, 

 it would furnish no bad proof of Mahomet's right to the title of " the 

 false prophet," for Sale quotes in the same preliminary discourse to 

 his edition of the Koran, the Persian proverb " coffee without 

 tobacco is meat without salt." An appeal to the graphic pictures of 

 eastern social habits in ihe " Arabian Nights' Entertainments," fur- 

 nishes strong evidence against the ancient knowledge of a custom 

 now so universal ; and in so far as such negative evidence may be 

 esteemed of any value, the pages of our own Shakespeare seem 

 equally conclusive, though, as will be seen, the practice had not only 

 been introduced into England, but was becoming familiarily known 

 before his death. 



The " drinking tobacco," as smoking was at first termed, from the 

 mode of partaking of its fumes then practiced, finds apt illustration 

 in the language of our great dramatist. The poet, in '• Timon," 

 speaks of the sycophantish followers of the noble Athenian " through 

 him drinking i'vee air;" in the "Tempest" Ariel, eager in her 

 master's service, exclaims : ' I drink the air before me," and in 

 " Antony and Cleopatra," the Egyptian Queen thus wrathfully pic- 

 tures the indignities of a Roman triumph : — 



* Sale's Koran Svo. Loud. IS 12. p. 164 



