The meerschaum, or froth of the sea, is a native rock formation of Turkey, and is excavated about two or three hundred miles from the sea of Marmora. Every particle is exported to Vienna, and it is never used by the natives, because it is a calcareous substance, and when in contact with fire undergoes a process of combustion to a sufficient degree to decompose the tobacco. This fact is well attested by the circumstance that a meerschaum pipe-bowl is greatly enhanced in value when by a long and tedious process it has lost all its combustible properties, and is thus rendered incapable of deteriorating the tobacco. But why select a substance which requires so long an apprenticeship, when nature furnishes one well suited for the purpose? and why esteem an article for its power of absorption and then prize it the more for having lost it by time and use? German philosophy only can explain! Apart from the unfitness of meerschaum for the bowl, the form in which it is modelled shows how little the nature of tobacco is understood by those sturdy people; for the form of an elongated cylinder only serves to surround the weed by a heavy body of combustible material capable of containing an excessive degree of heat, and thus decomposing the tobacco. But the main object of these amateurs of the mere-sham seems to be to deteriorate the fume of the narcotic plant as much as possible--for to cap the climax of their absurdity, a metallic cover is nicely fitted to those exquisite pipe-bowls, and thus the favorite meerschaum is converted into a perfect retort for the manufacture of tobacco-gas! Their stems are generally made of the most ordinary wood, short and curving, and the mouth-piece of the minutest dimensions. The object in having such small mouth-pieces is to imitate the process by which infants are nourished, by introducing them into the mouth and regularly sucking up the smoke instead of inhaling it, as the Osmanlis do, by merely resting their lips upon the large and oval surface of the amber. The introduction of the piece into the mouth immediately excites the saliva, which in part passes into the pipe, and is otherwise discharged by spitting--a most disgusting practice unknown among the Orientals. Notwithstanding also the shortness of the pipe, owing to its curved form and the diminutive mouthpiece, it is almost impossible to keep it clean. But it seems to be a sort of German philosophy not only to have their pipes in a most filthy state, but to delight in and value them the more in proportion to their antiquity and impurity. Truly there is no accounting for taste, nor is it any longer a matter of wonder that pigs delight to wallow in the mire. If, then, the nations of the East, the Persians and Osmanlis, are behind the age in other matters of civilization, they have surely attained the acme of refinement in this delight.