Yet the choicest tobaccos are now grown on the
coast of Syria, the real Levant. But did the Asiatics smoke any other
plant or substance before tobacco? In Syria, at the present day, they
smoke a plant called _timbac_; the Chinese smoke opium; the artificial
preparations for the hookah are known to all Indians. I believe,
however, that these are all refinements, and for this reason, that
in the classic writers, who were as well acquainted with the Oriental
nations as ourselves, we find no allusion to the practice of smoking.
The anachronism of the pipe I have not therefore ventured to commit, and
that of coffee will, I trust, be pardoned.]
[Footnote 20: page 58.--_Wilder gestures of the dancing girls._ These
dancing girls abound throughout Asia. The most famous are the Almeh of
Egypt, and the Nautch of India. These last are a caste, the first only a
profession.]
[Footnote 21: page 64.--_For thee the bastinado_. The bastinado is the
common punishment of the East, and an effective and dreaded one. It is
administered on the soles of the feet, the instrument a long cane or
palm-branch. Public executions are very-rare.]
[Footnote 22: page 73.--_A door of tortoise-shell and mother-of-pearl_.
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