TALES OF TOBACCO.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20384, 12 October 1929, Page 3 (Supplement)

TALES OF TOBACCO.

OLD-TIME RESTRICTIONS.

SALE A CRIME IN CHINA

Shortly after tobacco was fust introduced into China, in the beginning of the seventeenth century, its use was prohibited by an imperial edict, and decapitation was prescribed as a penalty for anyone who clandestinely hawked it. So writes Dr. Berthold Laufer, curator of anthropology ab 'Field Museum of Natural History, in a leaflet, " Tobacco and Its Use in Asia," published by tho museum. The edict proved unenforceable and was soon rescinded, because of the general disregard accorded it by nobles and commoners alike, and because tobacco had been adopted as a remedy for colds in the army —a remedy which was said to be unexcelled by any other remedy with which the Chinese were then acquainted. The first known reference to tobacco in the Far East occurred in 1615, when it was obtained in Japan from Portugese traders, Dr. Laufer states.. A few years later mariners from Fu-kien Province, China, took it back to their country from the Philippines, where it had been introduced by the Spaniards, who had learned of it from tho American Indians. Tho cultivation and use of .tobacco rapidly spread throughout Asia and have continued to this day.: Only one Asiatic people, the Yami, who number only 1700 persons, and are confined to the small island of Botol Tobago, near Taiwan, has completely resisted the use of the weed in any'form. .

Contemporary writers, including both Orientals and .European travellers,, tell of men, women aiid. children all becoming inveterate , smokers in the early years of tobacco's .entrance into Asia, tho leaflet states. 'Tobacco became known variously in China as " smoke-herb\ smoko-flower, smoke-leaf, and smoke-wine -the last because, likoMvine, it could intoxicate. Snuff was ; called " nose-smoke." In the idioms of their languages, the Chinese " eat, sip, or inhale " smoke, while tho Japanese and Tibetans " drink " it. Tho history,'' of the spread of the use of tobacco in Korea, India, Siberia, and Persia, as-well as Japan and China, is portrayed by Dr. Laufer. On'exhibition at Field Museum are notable collections of both dry and water, pipes, many of them very elaborato aud artistic, and of ornate snuff boxes, local tobacco preparations and other smokers' equipment used in these countries, both in early and modern times.