PREPARATIONS FOR SMOKING. 93 



that time," saith the tradition, " God has laid a heavy 

 curse upon tobacco."* If some of the precepts of 

 the Gospel were observed with equal veneration as 

 is this ridiculous story by Abyssinian Christians, 

 we should not have to regret the low ebb to which 

 our religion has been reduced in this priest-ridden, 

 but I must not say consequently, benighted land. 



Walderheros, however, was a business man, and 

 before he sat down to smoke, he was careful to 

 shut out observers of the fact, by fixing in its place 

 the old rotten door of three or four untrimmed 

 trunks of small trees, tied into a kind of flat 

 surface by the tough bark of a species of mimosa 

 tree. This hung by two hinges of thongs to a 

 crooked door-post, and shut against the wall on the 

 opposite side, where its own weight kept the 

 entrance securely closed. When all had been 

 arranged satisfactorily, he would drag the clumsy 

 chair into a position opposite to my couch, and 

 sitting down with his back to the door, place the 

 rude pipe between his feet. Then applying his 

 mouth to the end of its long stem, between each 

 puff he would look up, to tell me in Amharic the 

 name of some object for me to write down, whilst 



* This is an old tradition of the Greek Church. Where it is to 

 be found I cannot say, although it is said to be recorded in some of 

 the works of the early Fathers. It is, I think, a proof that 

 tobacco was known in Africa previously to the discovery of 

 America. It is a curious fact, also, that Ignez Pallmee, the German 

 traveller in Kordofan, found in that country potatoes used largely 

 as food. 



