CIGARETTE PAPERS.

Southland Times, Issue 22297, 12 April 1934, Page 8

CIGARETTE PAPERS.

MORE POINTS ABOUT PIPES. When pipe came back from Germany in the form of fife, it was a musical instrument of military character. This transition from pfeife to fife is shown in Hakluyt, who refers to “Forthwith came a Frenchman being a phipher, in a little boate, playing on his phiph the tune of the Prince of Orange his song.” While the musical pipe passed into all the Romance and Teutonic languages, English extended its use most energetically. Now, why was the smoking utensil called a pipe? There are two suggestive explanations. One is that the tubular character of the pipe was responsible for the name; the other is that the smoker’s equipment reminded people of the musical instrument. The first recorded use is 1594. The pipe of peace, of course, was the calumet of the American Indians. As the English used pipe for a cask (pipe of port) so the Germans used pfeife, the French pipe, the Italians pippa and the Spaniards pipa. Casks used to be made from hollowed tree trunks and the adoption of the word pipe is easily understood. In French the hollow cylinder is now tayau and in German rohre (from rohr, a reed) is used. There is one peculiar application of the word. It was used for an account sent in by a sheriff or other officer of the Crown and enrolled at the Exchequer. These were “Pipe Rolls” which summarized the pipes or accounts. The office was known as the “pipe-office.” Now “pipe, an account,” is well known in early Anglo-French legal language. Bacon wrote of “that office of Her Majesty’s Exchequer, which we, by a metaphor, do call the pipe, because the whole receipt is finally conveyed into it by means of divers small pipes or quills.” But it is more likely that the rolled parchment suggested the cylinder and led to the adoption of the word pipe for these rolls. Having piped my lay, not I hope a “scrannel pipe of wretched straw” such as Milton sang about, I may pipe down as by a boatswain’s whistle, and after using a pipe-light, enjoy a pipe dream of a rich find of pipe ore. After that; maybe, to clear my Pipes in good Air, following Addison’s advice, maybe while I am piping in the garden, by propogating through cuttings taken off at the stem and while my good lady is ornamenting a dress with attractive piping, all in the family with the bagpipes and that half tun of wine which our ancestors enjoyed so hugely. —CRITICUS.