Notes and Queries, Number 40, August 3, 1850

"And may my due feet never fail," &c.,

I am somewhat puzzled to understand the expression,

"With antique pillars massy proof."

Now what is "proof,"—a substantive or adjective? If the latter, no edition is rightly stopped; for, of course, there should be a comma after "massy;" and then I somewhat doubt the propriety of "proof" for "proved," unless joined with another word, as "star-proof," "rain-proof."

If "proof" is a substantive, "massy proof" is in apposition to "antique pillars," and is very meaningless. Can any of your readers suggest an explanation?

    H.A.B.

"Mooney's Goose."—As a pendant to "Ludlam's dog," I beg to insert the proverb of "Full of fun and fooster, like Mooney's goose," with the hope that your acute and ingenious correspondent D.V.S. may be able to throw some light upon "Mooney." Let me add that D.V.S. has perhaps somewhat misconceived my brief comment on Ludlam, which my regard for conciseness has left some deal obscure; and it does not appear worth while to go over the ground again. I repeatedly heard "Dick's hat-band" quoted by Lancashire friends exactly as given by Southey. Does not the variation "cobbler's dog" tend to prove the alliterative principle for which I had been contending?

    J.M.B.

Translation of the Philobiblon.—Where can I procure a translation of Robert de Bury's Philobiblon?

    L.S.

Achilles and the Tortoise.—Where is the paradox of "Achilles and the Tortoise" to be found? Leibnitz is said to have given it solution in some part of his works.

There is also a geometrical treatment of the subject by Gregoire de S. Vincent. Will some reading man oblige me with information or reference concerning it.

    [Greek: Idiotaes.]

Dominicals.—I am desirous of obtaining information on a subject of much interest to Exeter.

An ancient payment is made to the rectors of each parish within the city of Exeter, called "Dominicals," amounting to 1d. per week from every householder within the parish. Payments of a similar nature are made in London, Canterbury, and I believe Worcester. Can any of your numerous readers state the origin of Dominicals, and give any information respecting them.

    W.R.C.

Yorkshire Dales.—A Pedestrian would be much obliged by being informed if there is any map, guide, or description published, that would serve as a hand-book to the Dales in the West Riding of Yorkshire, between Lancashire and Westmoreland.

REPLIES

TOBACCO IN THE EAST

In the Edinburgh Cabinet Library, vol. iii. p. 383., art. "China," it is stated that three species of tobacco have been found in India and in China, under circumstances which can leave no doubt of their being native plants.

Dr. Bigelow (American Botany, 4to., vol. ii. p. 171.) tells us that Nicot. fructicosa is said to have been cultivated in the East prior to the discovery of America. Linnæus sets down the same as a native of China and the Cape of Good Hope. Sir G. Staunton says that there is no traditional account of the introduction of tobacco into China; nor is there any account of its introduction into India[2 - There is no positive notice of its introduction into Turkey, Persia, or Russia?]; though, according to Barrow, the time when the cotton plant was introduced into the southern provinces of China is noted in their annals. Bell of Antermony, who was in China in 1721, says,

"It is reported the Chinese have had the use of tobacco for many ages," &c.—Travels, vol. ii. p. 73., Lond. ed. 4to. 1763.

Ledyard says, the Tartars have smoked from remote antiquity (Travels, 326.). Du Halde speaks of tobacco as one of the natural productions of Formosa, whence it was largely imported by the Chinese (p. 173. Lond. ed. 8vo. 1741).

The prevalence of the practice of smoking at an early period among the Chinese is appealed to by Pallas as one evidence that in Asia, and especially in China, the use of tobacco for smoking is more ancient than the discovery of the New World. (See Asiat. Journ., vol. xxii. p. 137.)

The Koreans say they received tobacco from Japan, as also instructions for its cultivation, about the latter end of the sixteenth century. (Authority, I think, Hamel's Travels, Pink. Coll., vii. 532.) Loureiro states that in Cochin China tobacco is indigenous, and has its proper vernacular name.

Java is said to have possessed it before 1496. Dr. Ruschenberg says,

"We are informed the Portuguese met with it on their first visit to Java."—Voy. of U.S.S. Peacock, vol. ii. p. 456, Lond. ed. 8vo. 1838.

Crauford dates its introduction into Java, 1601, but admits that the natives had traditions of having possessed it long before. (Indian Archipelago, vol. i. pp. 104. 409, 410. 8vo.) Rumphius, in the latter part of the seventeenth century, found it universal even where the Portuguese and Spaniards had never been.

Savary, in his Parfait Négociant, states that the Persians have used tobacco 400 years, and probably received it from Egypt. (See Med. Chir. Review, 1840, p. 335.)

Olearius found it fully established in Persia, 1637, only about fifty years after its arrival in England. (Lond. 1662, in fol. p. 322.) Chardin states, the Persians smoked long before the discovery of America, and had cultivated tobacco time immemorial.

"Coffee without tobacco is meat without salt."—Persian Proverb, Sale's Koran, Preliminary Discourse, 169. ed. 8vo.

In 1634 Olearius found the Russians so addicted to tobacco that they would spend their money on it rather than bread. (See edit. above quoted, lib. iii. p. 83.)

According to Prof. Lichtenstein, the Beetjuanen smoked and snuffed long before their intercourse with Europeans. (Med. and Chir. Rev., 1840, p. 335.)

Liebault, in his Maison Rustique, asserts that he found tobacco growing naturally in the forest of Ardennes. Libavius says that it grows in the Hyrcinian forest. (Ibid.)

Dr. Cleland shows the three last to be falsehoods(?).

Ysbrants Ides found tobacco in general use among the Ostiaks and other tribes passed in his route to China, 1692. (Harris's Coll., fol. vol. ii. pp. 925. and 926.)

The story told of Amurath IV. punishing a Turk for smoking seems to be a mistake, since Amurath only began to reign 1622; whereas Sandys relates the same story of a certain Morad Bassa, probably Murat III., who began to reign 1576, and ended 1594. If this be the case, the Turks were smokers before tobacco was known in England.—In Persia smoking was prohibited by Shah Abbas. There were two princes of this name. The first began his reign 1585 A.D., died 1628: the second began 1641, died 1666. The proclamation against smoking was probably issued by the first, since (as before mentioned) in 1634 Olearius found the custom firmly established. If so, the Persians must have been early smokers. Smoking seems to have obtained at a very remote period among several nations of antiquity. Dr. Clarke quotes Plutarch on Rivers to show that the Thracians were in the habit of intoxicating themselves with smoke, which he supposes to have been tobacco. The Quarterly Review is opposed to this.

Lafitau quotes Pomp. Mela and Solin to show the same; also Herodotus and Maximin of Tyre, as evidences to the same custom prevailing amongst the Scythians, and thinks that Strabo alludes to tobacco in India. (See, for the Scythians, the Universal History.) Logan, in his Celtic Gaul, advances that smoking is of great antiquity in Britain. He says that pipes of the Celts are frequently found, especially at Brannocktown, co. Kildare, where in 1784 they were dug up in great numbers; that a skeleton dug out of an ancient barrow, actually had a pipe sticking between its teeth when found. (From Anthol. Hibern., i. 352.) Halloran says Celtic pipes are found in the Bog of Cullen. In form, these pipes were very similar to those in use at this day.

Eulia Effendi mentions having found a tobacco pipe, still in good preservation, and retaining a smell of smoke, embeded in the wall of a Grecian edifice more ancient than the birth of Mahomet. (Med. Chir. Rev. 1840, p. 335.) This Dr. Cleland proves to be a lie(?). He proves the same of Chardin, Bell of Antermony, Mr. Murray, Pallas, Rumphius, Savary, &c.

Masson describes a "chillum," or smoking apparatus, found embedded in an ancient wall in Beloochistan. (Travels, ii. 157.)

Dr. Yates saw amongst the paintings in a tomb at Thebes the representation of a smoking party. (Travels in Egypt, ii. 412.)

There is an old tradition in the Greek Church, said to be recorded in the works of the early Fathers, of the Devil making Noah drunk with tobacco, &c. (Johnson's Abyssinia, vol. ii. p. 92.)

Nanah, the prophet of the Sikhs, was born 1419. Supposing him fifty when he published his Ordinances, it would bring us to 1469, or 23 years before the discovery of America by Columbus. In these Ordinances he forbade the use of tobacco to the Sikhs; but found the habit so deeply rooted in the Hindû that he made an exception in their favour. (Masson's Beloochistan, vol. i. p. 42.) Should this be true, the Hindû must have been in the habit of smoking long before the discovery of America, to have acquired so inveterate a predilection for it.

If the prophecy attributed to Mahomet be not a fabrication of after times, it is strongly corroborative, and goes to show that he was himself acquainted with the practice of smoking, viz.

"To the latter day there shall be men who will bear the name of Moslem, but will not be really such, and they shall smoke a certain weed which shall be called tobacco."—See Sale's Koran, ed. 8vo. p. 169.

Query. Is tobacco the word in the original? If so, it is a stumbling-block.

Lieut. Burns, in his Travels, has the following curious statement:

"The city of Alore was the capital of a great empire extending from Cachemere to the sea. This was conquered by the Mahomedans in the seventh century, and in the decisive battle they are reported to have brought fire, &c., in their pipes to frighten the elephants."

Lieut. Burns conjectures that they must have smoked bang, &c., tobacco being then unknown.

Buchanan's account of the cultivation and preparation of tobacco in Mysore, carries with it a conviction that these elaborate processes were never communicated to them by Europeans, nor brought in any way from America, where they have never been practised. They strike one as peculiarly ancient and quite indigenous.