"To smoke from sixty to eighty pipes a day is by no means uncommon; for whatever be the business, no matter how serious, in which the Turk is engaged, he must smoke at it. In the divan, where the grandees of the empire consult together on the most delicate affairs of State, the question was once mooted whether the tchbukdes should not be excluded from such debates as were of a strictly private nature. There was a great diversity of opinion on the subject. Politics and reason were on opposite sides. At last it was decided that they would not disgrace an ancient national usage, but would allow the harmless attendants to enter the council-room every now and then to change the pipes. In Turkey, pipes and tobacco afford means of distinguishing not only the different classes of the community, but even the several graduates of rank in the same class. A mushir (marshal) would find it derogatory to his dignity to smoke out of a stem less than two yards in length. The artisan or official of a lower rank, would consider it highly unbecoming on his part to use one which exceeded the proper proportions of his class. A superior stretches his pipe before him to his inferior; while the latter must hold his modestly on one side, only allowing the end of the mouth-piece to peep out of his closed fist. "The pasha has the right to puff out his smoke before him like a steam engine, while his inferiors are only allowed to breathe forth a light curl of smoke, and that must be let off backwards. Not to smoke at all in the presence of a superior, is held the most delicate homage which can be paid him. A son, for instance, acts in this manner in the presence of his father, and only such a one is considered to be well brought up who declines to smoke even after his father has repeatedly invited him to do so. The fair sex in the East is scarcely less addicted to the use of this weed.