Chap. VT. 



MOSQUITO TOBACCO. 



113 



some drawings on the island, and also to pay a 

 visit to his father, who combined the professions of 

 artist and doctor in his own person. Both father 

 and son were now set to work in order to get 

 the information required. They were told not to 

 hurry themselves or appear very anxious about it, 

 but to take care as to the correctness of anything 

 they might learn on the subject. In two months 

 I received the result of their investigations, which 

 coincided very closely with my own. Pine and 

 juniper sawings, wormwood-leaves, and tobacco- 

 leaves, reduced to powder, a small portion of nu- 

 wang and arsenic. Each article was well beaten 

 up with water, then the whole mixed together, and 

 in the form of a thick paste rolled on a slip of 

 bamboo. On exposure to the air the substance 

 dried quickly, and was then put away for sale. 

 When finished the sticks are somewhat like the 

 common joss-stick of the country, or about the 

 thickness and length of a light walking-cane. 



Another substance, much cheaper than the last, 

 is found in every town and village in the central 

 and eastern provinces of the empire where I have 

 been, and no doubt it is in use over the greater 

 part of China. Long, narrow bags of paper — say 

 half an inch in diameter and two feet long — are 

 filled with the following substances, namely, the 

 sa wings of pine or juniper, mixed with a small por- 

 tion of nu-wang and arsenic. The proportions are 

 thirty pounds of sa wings, two ounces of nu-wang, 

 and one ounce of arsenic. This mixture is not 



