92 GREEK CHURCH TRADITION. 



and a pretty dust he was continually raising, by 

 sweeping with a large handful of well-leaved 

 boughs the clay floor of our residence. He 

 delighted also in the unholy pleasures of 

 the pipe, a severe rheumatism always affecting 

 him when he was about to indulge ; and I often 

 smile when I think of the canting tone and long 

 visage with which he used to apostrophise the 

 inanimate object of his affections, a gourd shell 

 pipe, as he drew it towards him, and excused such a 

 dereliction of duty as a Greek Christian, upon the 

 plea that nothing but the smoke of tobacco could 

 drive out the " saroitsh," or demons, who, according 

 to Abyssinian belief, affect the frame when suffering 

 from any disease. 



According to a tradition of the Greek Church, it 

 appears that the devil paid repeated visits to Noah 

 when he commenced building the ark, for the 

 purpose of ascertaining by what means and of 

 what materials he constructed it. The patriarch, 

 however, kept his own counsel, until the devil 

 called to his aid the herb tobacco, with which, it 

 seems, he made poor Noah drunk, and whilst in 

 that state the enemy of mankind wormed his secret 

 from him. Thus assisted (for it is said Noah 

 became an inveterate smoker), the devil availed 

 himself of the darkness of night to undo all that 

 Noah had put together during the day, and this 

 was the principal cause that the building of the 

 ark extended over so long a period. " Ever since 



