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
The word printed “smutchin” by Howell, is stated to be more accurately
“sneeshin,” a vulgar name for snuff which causes sneezing; and hence
“sneeshin mill” (sometimes corrupted into “mull”) is the Scottish
name for snuff-box. Dr. Jameson’s Etymological Dictionary may be
considered as an authority in these matters; and from it we learn that
the word “mill” is the vulgar name for a snuff-box, especially one of
a cylindrical form, or resembling an inverted cone. No other name was
formerly in use in Scotland; and the reason assigned for it is, that
when tobacco was first introduced into this country, those who wished
to have snuff, were accustomed to toast the tobacco leaves before the
fire, and then bruise them with a piece of wood in the box, which was
thence called a “mill,” because the snuff was ground in it. From all
this, it is easy to perceive how a ram’s horn, from its conical shape,
became one of the primitive forms of the Scottish snuff-box, although
latterly it is often one of the most costly and luxurious.
In confirmation of the latter remark, it is only necessary to refer
to an example in the Exhibition of 1851. Mr. W. Baird of Glasgow,
exhibited a ram’s head beautifully mounted, as a snuff-box and cigar
case. When alive, he must have been a noble sheep, for the circular
horns measured no less than 3 feet 4 inches from root to tip. The cigar
case was beautifully mounted, having on the top a splendid Scotch
amethyst, surmounted with thistle wreaths in gold and silver, and
set out with many fine cairngorms and small amethysts. The snuff-box
cavity, occupied the centre of the forehead, the lid surmounted by a
splendid cairngorm, and clustered with gold and silver wreaths and
small precious stones. In fact, the head presented a perfect flourish
of the most beautiful and gracefully disposed ornaments, and altogether
the article was most unique. Attached thereto was a fine ivory hammer
and silver spoon, pricker and rake, with a silver mounted hare’s foot.
It ran on ivory castors upon a rosewood platform, surmounted by a
glass shade. There were not less than nine hundred separate pieces of
precious stones and metals used in the construction of this ornate
article.
Down to the middle of the eighteenth century, the “sneeshin horn,” with
spoon and hare’s foot attached to it by chains, appears to have been
regarded as so completely a national characteristic, that when Baddeley
played Gibby in “The Wonder,” with Garrick, he came on the stage with
such an apparatus.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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