Southwest J^/useum Leaflets 



the term nicotine. Later, French aristocrats set the fashion 

 of taking snuff from exquisite snuffboxes. In time this fash- 

 ion was copied in England by the upper classes, among whom 

 snuff-taking largely supplanted smoking for many years. Mean- 

 while the habit of chewing tobacco grew rapidly, especially 

 among sailors and Americans. 



The word tobacco is Indian, probably from the Taino word 

 tabaco, meaning the pipe in which it was smoked, though it 

 may mean tobacco leaves rolled for smoking. 



There are many different species of tobacco, several of which 

 were grown by the Indians. Two species were evidently cul- 

 tivated by Indians in South America; and in pre-Columbian 

 times one or both of these had been distributed over most of 

 South America and as far north in North America as the cli- 

 mate permitted cultivation by Indian farmers, which was in 

 Canada. Both of these species are still grown, one much more 

 than the other, and in all the countries in the temperate and 

 tropic zones of the world. 



Rubber — When early British golfers were playing with 

 a ball made of feathers packed into a leather cover, Indians 

 were playing a game with a ball made of rubber. For untold 

 centuries before the time of Columbus, Indians had known 

 and used rubber, and they were the only people anywhere of 

 which this can be said. Very elaborate stone ball-courts were 

 erected in Middle America to provide a suitable place for their 

 ball games, which were religious in character, and ball-courts 

 probably of similar significance were used as far north as 

 northern Arizona. 



When the Spaniards first saw rubber balls, they were 

 amazed at the remarkable way they would bounce. Not only 

 balls, but many other articles, including waterproof bags and 

 the- original "gum boots," were manufactured from rubber 

 by the Indians, for they had mastered the required processes 

 just as they had devised ways for obtaining the sap and treat- 

 ing it. 



Several kinds of rubber trees were utilized, principally in 

 Middle America and in the valley of the Amazon. Nowadays 

 most of the planting of rubber trees is in distant countries, 

 but it is well to remember that all of it is rubber of the 

 American Indians. 



Long after the time of Columbus the name rubber was 

 applied by the English, who first used the product to rub out 

 pencil marks. 



To people who ride on rubber and to all nations who wish 



