When the tobacco has been found to be too strong, incipient smokers have been known to counteract its effects, and lessen its power, by mixing therewith the flowers of chamomile, which once enjoyed great reputation as a useful medicine. Others, in the absence of tobacco, have resorted to brown paper or tow, which, being smoked through an old or foul pipe, is said to carry with its smoke some of the tobacco flavour, and to be infinitely better than no smoke at all. Juveniles will sometimes, with a piece of cane, or a strip of clematis, imitate their elders, and, in imagination, enjoy the luxury of an Havannah cigar. A curious anecdote of a Buckinghamshire parson occurs in “Lilly’s History of his Life and Times,” to which we have before referred. “In this year, also, William Breedon, parson or vicar of Thornton in Bucks, was living, a profound divine, but absolutely the most polite parson for nativities in that age, strictly adhering to Ptolemy, which he well understood; he had a hand in composing Sir Christopher Heydon’s ‘Defence of Judicial Astrology,’ being at that time his chaplain; he was so given over to tobacco and drink, that when he had no tobacco (and I suppose too much drink) he would cut the bell-ropes and _smoke_ them.” Having unmasked the “race of pretenders,” and shown the titles upon which they seek to establish their claims, with Charles Lamb we now bid farewell to Tobacco. “For I must, (nor let it grieve thee, Friendliest of plants, that I must) leave thee; For thy sake, Tobacco, I Would do anything but die; And but seek to extend my days Long enough to sing thy praise. But as she, who once hath been A king’s consort, is a queen Ever after, nor will bate Any tittle of her state, Though a widow, or divorced, So I, from thy converse forced, The old name and style retain, A right Katherine of Spain; And a seat, too, ’mongst the joys Of the blest Tobacco boys; Where, though I, by sour physician, Am debarred the full fruition Of thy favours, I may catch Some collateral sweets, and snatch Sidelong odours, that give life, Like glances from a neighbour’s wife; And still live in the by-places, And the suburbs of thy graces; And in thy borders take delight, An unconquered Canaanite.” [Illustration] CHAPTER IX. +“MASH ALLAH!”—THE GIFT+. “Farewell ye odours of earth that die, Passing away like a lover’s sigh; My feast is now of the Tooba tree,[19] Whose scent is the breath of eternity.” MOORE’S _Lalla Rookh_.