The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 17, No. 473, January 29, 1831 — John Shaqi
The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 17, No. 473, January 29, 1831Various
General
The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 17, No. 473, January 29, 1831
Various
Popular literature -- Great Britain -- Periodicals
In page 429, vol. xvi. of your amusing Miscellany, the Cheroot is called a
China Cigar. The writer, if he had given himself the trouble to inquire of
any person who had ever been in that country, would have ascertained that
there is no such thing as a Cheroot manufactured in China; and what are
called Cigars there are nothing more than a small quantity of very fine
cut yellowish tobacco, wrapped up in white paper, and about two inches or
rather more in length. These, the Chinese sometimes smoke, but generally
prefer a shallow cupped pipe of composition metal, of which copper is the
principal part; to which a long whanghee or small black bamboo is attached,
as a stem or stalk, sometimes more than a yard in length, and tipped with
an ivory tube or mouthpiece. They generally carry a piece of joss-stick or
slow-match with them, and a flint, steel, and punk; and when they are
inclined to smoke, they strike fire on apiece of punk, and light the
joss-stick, which will continue burning a long while. As their tobacco is
very fine and dry, the pipeful seldom takes more than one or two whiffs to
consume it, and they emit the smoke through their nostrils in large
volumes. In this manner they will smoke more than a dozen pipesfull in a
short time. Cigars are generally imported into China by the Americans, or
sent from Manilla; and Cheroots by the English and other trading vessels
from Bengal or from Madras.
In India, the lower orders use a hookah or hubble bubble, which is made of
a cocoa-nut shell well cleaned out, having a hole through the soft eye of
the shell, and another on the opposite side, a little lower down, the
first of which is used for the chauffoir, and the other to suck or draw
the smoke from. The shell is nearly filled with water, and a composition
of tobacco, sugar, and sometimes a little opium, is put into the chauffoir,
in shape of a ball, about the size of a marble, which they call joggery. A
live coal is then put on the ball in the chauffoir, and the hubble-bubble
is handed from one to another, with the best relish imaginable. Sometimes
a dozen natives, get squatting on their hams, in a group, and pass this
delicate article of luxury from one to another, each taking two or three
good pulls at it as it goes round, and chattering three or four at a time,
like so many apes. They likewise emit the smoke through their nostrils
like the Chinese. The women are in the habit of enjoying the hubble-bubble,
in groups, in a similar manner.
The best Cheroots are manufactured at Chiusmab, near Calcutta, where
likewise a great quantity are made up; they vary in length from four to
eight or nine inches. A great quantity are likewise manufactured at
Masulapatam, but they are considered as much inferior to those of Bengal.
At Masulapatam there is a very extensive manufactory of a black clammy
snuff, which is sent all over Hindostan.
_Camden Town._
R.L.
* * * * *
STORY OF A BOY.
(_For the Mirror_.)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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