90 TOBACCO IN EUROPE. 



English gallants, whose first salutation to their ac- 

 quaintance is, Will you take a -pipe of Tobacco ? " A 

 custom which he reprobates in this long preface. 



The book is a fanciful tale; the scene first laid 

 in Tartary, "not farre from the Bermucloes," where 

 dwelt a rich Islander, named Nepenthes, and his wife 

 Usquebaughin. One day, upon the sea-coast, they met 

 with an Apothecary, who had been cast on shore, after 

 having been rifled by pirates, and swallowed by a 

 Polypus, who was compelled to disgorge him by the 

 medicine he carried about him. He is carried home 

 by the islanders, and by his art, the wife, before 

 childless, has a son. About the same time, a high 

 feast is held in Pluto's court, whither comes Bacchus, 

 who, making the god drunk, makes love to Proserpine; 

 a child is born, and delightedly acknowledged by 

 Pluto, until he is undeceived by Mercury, and goes 

 with a complaint to Jupiter. Meanwhile, the child, to 

 elude suspicion, is changed for that borne by Usque- 

 baughin, but having obtained the former before she can 

 send her own in its place, Pluto returns, meets the 

 messenger, Iris, with it, and announces Jove's decree, 

 that to root out his disgrace, it shall be changed to a 

 plant — "which, to expresse his father, shall still reserve 

 the name of his progenitor Bacchus ; and therefore, 

 have we in his memory, called him (as one commended 

 to the care, protection, and tuition of his father) 

 Tobacco." He then pronounces a farewell speech to 

 him, in which he tells him he will be favourably re- 

 ceived everywhere, and aid him in bringing souls to 



