in imitation of them.

"The poor Indians of the forests of the Orinoco know as well
as did the great nobles at the court of Montezuma, that the
smoke of tobacco is an excellent narcotic; and they use it
not only to procure their afternoon nap, but also to put
themselves in that state of quiescence which they call
dreaming with the eyes open or day dreaming."

[Illustration: Native smoking.]

Tobacco at this period was also rolled up in the leaves of the Palm
and smoked. Columbus found the natives of San Salvador smoking after
this manner. Lobel in his History of Plants[6] gives an engraving of
a native smoking one of these rolls or primitive cigars and speaks of
their general use by Captains of ships trading to the West Indies.

[Footnote 6: History of Plants, 1576.]

But not only was snuff taking and the use of tobacco rolls or cigars
noted by European voyagers, but the use of the pipe also in some parts
of America, seemed to be a common custom especially among the chiefs.
Be Bry in his History of Brazil (1590) describes its use and also some
interesting particulars concerning the plant. Their method of curing
the leaves was to air-dry them and then packing them until wanted for
use. In smoking he says:--

"When the leaves are well dried they place in the open part
of a pipe of which on burning, the smoke is inhaled into the
mouth by the more narrow part of the pipe, and so strongly
that it flows out of the mouth and nostrils, and by that
means effectually drives out humours."

Fairholt in alluding to the various uses of the herb among the Indians
says:--

"We can thus trace to South America, at the period when the
New World was first discovered, every mode of using the
tobacco plant which the Old World has indulged in ever
since."

This statement is not entirely correct--the mode of using tobacco in
Norway by plugging the nostrils with small pieces of tobacco seems to
have been unknown among the Indians of America as it is now with all
other nationalities, excepting the Norwegians.

When Cortez made conquest of Mexico in 1519 smoking seemed to be a
common as well as an ancient custom among the natives. Benzoni in his
History of the New World[7] describing his travels in America gives a
detailed account of the plant and their method of curing and using it.
In both North and South America the use of tobacco seemed to be