SMOKING IX THE EAST. 157 



recent a date as to preclude their evidence being con- 

 sidered in any other point of view than as mere 

 traditions of the people among whom they travelled — a 

 proof obviously of no conceivable weight, from the 

 love of antiquity which is so well-known a mania of 

 the inhabitants of Oriental countries." 



E. W. Lane, whose long residence and intimate 

 acquaintance with the Eastern nations makes his 

 opinion of the highest value, gives the weight of his 

 authority to this view, both in his translation of the 

 Tales of a Thousand and One Nights, and in his Man- 

 ners and Customs of the Modem Egyptians. In the 

 latter work he says : — 



" The most prevalent means, in most Moos'lim 

 countries, of exciting what the Arabs term ' kegf' 

 which I cannot more nearly translate than by the word 

 4 exhilaration,' is tobacco. It appears that tobacco 

 was introduced into Turkey, Arabia, and other coun- 

 tries of the East, soon after the beginning of the 

 seventeenth century of the Christian era : that is, not 

 many years after it had begun to be regularly imported 

 into Western Europe, as an article of commerce, from 

 America. Its lawfulness to the Moos'lim has often 

 been warmly disputed ; but is now generally allowed. 

 In the character of the Turks and Arabs who have 

 become addicted to its use, it has induced considerable 

 changes ; particularly rendering them more inactive 

 than they were in earlier times ; leading them to waste 

 over the pipe many hours which might be profitably 

 employed ; but it has had another and a better effect ; 



