“PRE-HISTORIC SMOKES”

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LVI, 29 August 1923, Page 8

“PRE-HISTORIC SMOKES”

TOBACCO’S PLACE IN ANCIENT

HISTORY

The history of tobacco and the part, it has played in civilisation have heretofore always begun with the discovery of America. It is now possible (says the New York Journal) to trace it back for a thousand years or more before the appearance of white men on llie American continent. Tobacco played a far more important part in prehistoric times than in our own era. The pipe took the place of the family crest. It was elaborately carved with pictures of the battles and conquests of its owner or his tribe, so that now it is invaluable as a writ!eh history of the period. In the classic period of the pipe, as it may be called, tobacco played a very important part in civilisation. The importance of the pipe of peace, which confirmed countless treaties, is familiar. Raising tobacco to keep these pipes alight became- an important industry, and determined the migration of tribes and the selection of land for their homes. No matter how far back in history we delve wc find the Indian placidly smoking his pipe. The Indian pipes of pre-historic times may serve to give the clue to the mysterious origin of these people and their carlx- migration. Take, for example, t'ne pipes made and smoked by the Eskimo of Alaska. Many of these pipes are amazingly elaborate in design and decoration. They are often made of prehistoric ivory, as it is called ; that is, from the tusks of extinct animals which had been preserved in the frozen north for untold centuries. Unlike the ordinary bowl of the tobacco-smoking pipe, these have a flqt disc, with a very small hole at the centre. They are a perfect reproduction in short, pf the opium pipes of the Orientals, although used for tobacco smoking. The question naturally arises as to where the Eskimo learned to make suck pipes, and the conclusion is inevitable that they show an Oriental influence. In other words, the Eskimo must at some time have been in touch with- the continent of Asia. One of the pipes is decorated with a boat and two sails and with several walrus seated about it. In some such boat the ancestors of these tribes may have crossed the Helming Sea. Eskimo have, in fact, been discovered in North-Western Siberia, who still retain the language and customs of the American tribes, so that it is concluded that at some remote poriod they have actually emigrated from America lo Asia. Not only pipes, but actual tobacco used by Hie prehistoric people have been discovered. The leaves of tobacco with the pipes chanced to ho covered with earth' and sand, and in the remarkable dry, warm air. of the region in which they were found they have been preserved intact. It is believed that these pipes and tobacco are fully jOUO years old, perhaps much older. Like most of the prehistoric tobacco, the leaves are flat. The trick of tw'isting it is a much later custom.