316 GREAT SNUFF- TAKERS. 



commandment contained in the Koran, that says 

 "no property shall be consumed in fire," which 

 they contend is the case when smoking is indulged 

 in, and that consequently, it is a crime of scarcely 

 less atrocity than downright arson. 



Tobacco in the form of snuff is used, however, 

 by all the tribes, and I have myself seen the Chief 

 of the Sidee Abreu snuffing greedily a large quantity 

 up his nose whilst he was telling me, with a great 

 deal of self-satisfaction, that the use of tobacco was 

 a capital crime among his people. This luxury is 

 kept in a little bag, or pouch, made of two pieces 

 of fine gut, stretched and dried in the sun, and 

 then sewed together. What little snuff they can 

 get possession of is carefully deposited in this ; it is 

 then folded up several times one way, and placed 

 between the scabbard of their knife and the thongs 

 that secure it to their girdle. " Surat," the name 

 of snuff in the Dankalli language, indicates the 

 place on the coast of India from whence was 

 imported the first that came into Adal. 



I was much amused by a comparison memory 

 suggested, between the Dankalli of the present 

 day, and the beggars for tobacco in the south of 

 Galloway, in Scotland, not one hundred years 

 ago, where a traveller of that day relates of the 

 inhabitants, " that they are for the most part great 

 chewers of tobacco, and are so addicted to it that 

 they will ask for a piece thereof from a stranger as 

 he is riding on his way, and therefore let not a 



