In India, snuff-boxes are made of polished cocoa-nut shell, or of the seeds of _Entada gigalobium_, or _pursætha_; or in Nepal, of a small kind of calabash or gourd, apparently resembling those used for the same purpose, at the distance of 5,000 miles, in the South of Africa; excepting, that in some instances, the gourds of Nepal and of Scinde, are ornamented with mountings of gold or silver, a luxury in which the African does not indulge. In the same part of Africa, among the Zoolu Kaffirs, other kinds of snuff-boxes, of smaller size, are in common use. These are made of the seeds of a species of Zamia, ornamented with strings of small beads, and are worn suspended as earrings, from the ears of the natives. In China, flasks are used, the form and size of a smelling bottle; these are of different kinds of material, some being cut out of rock crystal, and others made of porcelain and similar plastic substances. Snuff-takers are less numerous in China than smokers of tobacco; in powder, or as the Chinese say, “smoke for the nose,” is little used, except by the Mantchoo Tartars and Mongols, and among the Mandarins and lettered classes. The Tartars are real amateurs, and snuff is with them an object of the most important consideration. For the Chinese aristocracy, on the contrary, it is a mere luxury—a habit that they try to acquire—a whim. The custom of taking snuff was introduced into China by the old missionaries who resided at the Court. They used to get the snuff from Europe for themselves, and some of the Mandarins tried it, and found it good. By degrees the custom spread; people who wished to appear fashionable, liked to be taking this “smoke for the nose;” and Pekin is still _par excellence_, the locality of snuff-takers. The first dealers in it made immense fortunes. The French tobacco was the most esteemed; and as it happened at this time, that it had for a stamp the ancient emblem of the three _fleur de lis_, the mark has never been forgotten, and the three _fleur de lis_ are still in Pekin, the only sign of a dealer in tobacco. The Chinese have now, for a long time, manufactured their own snuff, but they do not subject it to any fermentation, and it is not worth much. They merely pulverize the leaves, sift the powder till it is as fine as flour, and afterwards perfume it with flowers and essences. A curious method of snuffing, requiring neither box nor flask, is noticed in the “Voyages and Researches of the _Adventure_ and _Beagle_.” At Otaheite, a substance, not unlike powdered rhubarb in appearance, but of a very pleasant fragrance, is rubbed on a piece of shark’s skin stretched on wood; and an old man, who had one of these snuff sticks in his possession, valued it so highly, that he could not be induced to part with it.