The Seven Sisters of Sleep: Popular History of the Seven Prevailing Narcotics of the WorldCooke, M. C. (Mordecai Cubitt)
History
The Seven Sisters of Sleep: Popular History of the Seven Prevailing Narcotics of the World
Cooke, M. C. (Mordecai Cubitt)
Drug abuse; Narcotics; Psychotropic drugs; Psychotropic plants; Tobacco use
On the Orinoco, tobacco has been cultivated by the native tribes from
time immemorial. The Tamanacs and the Maypures of Guiana wrap maize
leaves around their cigars as did the Mexicans at the time of the
arrival of Cortes; and, as in Chili, is done at the present day. The
Spaniards have substituted paper for the maize husks, in imitation
of them. The little cigarettos of Chili are called _hojitas_. They
are about two inches and a half long, filled with coarsely powdered
tobacco. As their use is apt to stain the fingers of the smoker, the
fashionable young gentlemen carry a pair of delicate gold tweezers for
holding them. The cigar is so small that it requires not more than
three or four minutes to smoke one. They serve to fill up the intervals
in a conversation. At tertulias, the gentlemen sometimes retire to a
balcony to smoke one or two cigars after a dance.
The poor Indians of the forests of the Orinoco know, as well as did the
great nobles of the Court of Montezuma, that the smoke of tobacco is an
excellent narcotic; and they use it, not only to procure an afternoon
nap, but, also to induce a state of quiescence which they call dreaming
with the eyes open. At the Court of Montezuma the pipe was held in one
hand, while the nostrils were stopped with the other, in order that
the smoke might be more easily swallowed. Bernal Diaz also informs
us, that after Montezuma had dined, they presented to him three little
canes, highly ornamented, containing liquid amber, mixed with a herb
they call tobacco, and when he had sufficiently viewed and heard the
singers, he took a little of the smoke of one of these canes, and then
laid himself down to sleep. A tribe of Indians originally inhabiting
Panama, improved upon this method, which occupied both hands, and
involved considerable trouble; the method adopted by the chiefs and
great men of this tribe, was to employ servants to blow tobacco smoke
in their faces, which was convenient and encouraged their indolence;
they indulged in the luxury of tobacco in no other way.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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