Читать книгу The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 17, No. 473, January 29, 1831 - Various - Страница 7

(To the Editor.)

In page 429, vol. xvi. of your amusing Miscellany, the Cheroot is called a China Cigar. The writer, if he had given himself the trouble to inquire of any person who had ever been in that country, would have ascertained that there is no such thing as a Cheroot manufactured in China; and what are called Cigars there are nothing more than a small quantity of very fine cut yellowish tobacco, wrapped up in white paper, and about two inches or rather more in length. These, the Chinese sometimes smoke, but generally prefer a shallow cupped pipe of composition metal, of which copper is the principal part; to which a long whanghee or small black bamboo is attached, as a stem or stalk, sometimes more than a yard in length, and tipped with an ivory tube or mouthpiece. They generally carry a piece of joss-stick or slow-match with them, and a flint, steel, and punk; and when they are inclined to smoke, they strike fire on apiece of punk, and light the joss-stick, which will continue burning a long while. As their tobacco is very fine and dry, the pipeful seldom takes more than one or two whiffs to consume it, and they emit the smoke through their nostrils in large volumes. In this manner they will smoke more than a dozen pipesfull in a short time. Cigars are generally imported into China by the Americans, or sent from Manilla; and Cheroots by the English and other trading vessels from Bengal or from Madras.

In India, the lower orders use a hookah or hubble bubble, which is made of a cocoa-nut shell well cleaned out, having a hole through the soft eye of the shell, and another on the opposite side, a little lower down, the first of which is used for the chauffoir, and the other to suck or draw the smoke from. The shell is nearly filled with water, and a composition of tobacco, sugar, and sometimes a little opium, is put into the chauffoir, in shape of a ball, about the size of a marble, which they call joggery. A live coal is then put on the ball in the chauffoir, and the hubble-bubble is handed from one to another, with the best relish imaginable. Sometimes a dozen natives, get squatting on their hams, in a group, and pass this delicate article of luxury from one to another, each taking two or three good pulls at it as it goes round, and chattering three or four at a time, like so many apes. They likewise emit the smoke through their nostrils like the Chinese. The women are in the habit of enjoying the hubble-bubble, in groups, in a similar manner.

The best Cheroots are manufactured at Chiusmab, near Calcutta, where likewise a great quantity are made up; they vary in length from four to eight or nine inches. A great quantity are likewise manufactured at Masulapatam, but they are considered as much inferior to those of Bengal. At Masulapatam there is a very extensive manufactory of a black clammy snuff, which is sent all over Hindostan.

Camden Town.

R.L.