“A third party sprang up, headed by the descendants of Robert Chewit, the companion of the great Hudson. These discarded pipes altogether, and took to chewing tobacco; hence, they were called Quids.”——Knickerbocker’s, New York.
 
Any one who will take the trouble to read through the “Curiosities of Food,” will soon become convinced, from the examples which Mr. P.?L. Simmonds has collected so assiduously from all parts of the world, that there is no accounting for tastes. What extraordinary things men will admit between their teeth to gratify their appetites, is almost enough to set one’s own teeth on edge. Tobacco is certainly not more nauseous or revolting, than to us would be many of the delicacies dished up for dinner by some of the bipedal race. “Some Europeans,” observes the author, “chew tobacco, the Hindoo takes to betel nut and lime, while the Patagonian finds contentment in a bit of guano, and the Styrians grow fat and ruddy on arsenic. English children delight in sweetmeats and sugar-candy, while those of Africa prefer rock salt. A Frenchman likes frogs and snails, and we eat eels, oysters, and whelks. To the Esquimaux, train oil is your only delicacy. The Russian luxuriates upon his hide and tallow; the Chinese upon rats, puppy dogs, and shark’s fins; the Kaffir upon elephant’s foot and trunk or lion steaks; while95 the Pacific islander places cold missionary above every other edible. Why then should we be surprised at men’s feeding upon rattle snakes and monkeys, and pronouncing them capital eating?”14
 
Nothing is more extraordinary than the habit of dirt-eating and chewing of lime, either by themselves or in combination with other substances. But more of this anon. Tobacco, as a masticatory, might equally cause surprise did it not daily occur at our doors. The quantity used in this form will not bear comparison with that consumed in smoke, but even this is considerable. In America, the custom is carried to a very unpleasant extent, and were it the only form in which the plant could be indulged, there is good ground for presuming that it would fall very far short of the popularity which it has attained.
 
Somebody, with a strong antipathy to pig-tail and fine cut, has entered into certain investigations and calculations in the Philadelphia Journal, which has resulted in this wise. If a tobacco chewer chews for fifty years, and uses each day of that period two inches of solid plug, he will consume nearly one mile and a quarter in length of solid tobacco, half an inch thick and two inches broad, costing 2,094 dollars, or about ￡500. Plug ugly, sure enough! By the same process of reasoning, this statist calculates, that if a man ejects one pint of saliva per day for fifty years (a feat, one would presume, it would require a Yankee to accomplish), the total would swell into nearly 2,300 gallons, quite a respectable lake, and almost enough to float the “Great Eastern” in! Truly, Brother Jonathan, there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in our philosophy.
 
Another calculation shows, that if all the tobacco96 which the British people have consumed during the last three years were worked up into pig-tail half an inch thick, it would form a line 99,470 miles long; or enough to go nearly four times round the world;15 or if the tobacco consumed by the same people in the same period were to be placed in one scale, and St. Paul’s Cathedral and Westminster Abbey in the other, the ecclesiastical buildings would kick the beam.
 
“Oh, the nasty creatures!” some lady exclaims. “Who could suppose that they would do such a thing, and to such an extent too, as to burn and chew and smoke in three years enough tobacco to reach round the world four times!” It is astonishing, my dear Mrs. Partington, we must confess; but let us compare therewith the tea consumption16 for the same period, and we shall find that during the past three years, we have consumed about 205,500,000 of pounds of tea, which, if done up in packages containing one quarter of a pound each—such packages being 4? inches in length and 2? inches in diameter—these placed end to end, would reach 59,428 miles; or, upon the same principles as those adopted for the pig-tail, would girdle the earth twice with a belt of tea 2? inches in diameter, or twenty-five times that of the aforesaid pig-tail. Enough to make rivers of tea strong enough for any old lady in the kingdom to enjoy, and deep enough for all the old ladies in the kingdom to bathe in.
 
97
 
All this, we are free to confess, does not make the habit of quidding either more justifiable or respectable, although indulged in by some of the members of the gentler sex. In Paraguay, for instance, an American traveller informs us that everybody smokes, and nearly every woman and girl more than thirteen years old chews tobacco. A magnificent Hebe, arrayed in satin and flashing in diamonds, puts you back with one delicate hand, while with the fair taper fingers of the other she takes the tobacco out of her mouth previous to your saluting her. An over delicate foreigner turns away with a shudder of loathing under such circumstances, and gets the epithet of “the savage” applied to him by the offended beauty for his sensitive squeamishness. However, one soon gets used to these things in Paraguay, where one is, per force of custom, obliged to kiss every lady one is introduced to, and one half of those you meet are really tempting enough to render you reckless of consequences.
 
Suppose not that Paraguay is a solitary instance in which ladies have a predilection for this masticatory. In Siberia, which is far enough geographically to prevent any collusion, or the influence of example to exert its power, Captain Cochrane says that the Tchuktchi eat, chew, smoke, and snuff at the same time. He saw amongst them, boys and girls of nine or ten years of age who put a large leaf of tobacco into their mouths without permitting any saliva to escape, nor would they put aside the tobacco should meat be offered to them, but continued consuming both of them together.
 
The Mintira women and other races of the great Indian Archipelago are addicted to chewing tobacco. Amongst the Nubians, the custom is more common than smoking. Of the South American tribes, the Sercucumas of the Erevato, and the Caura neighbours of the whitish Taparitos, swallow tobacco98 chopped small, and impregnated with some other stimulant juices.
 
In Africa, the habit is not at all an uncommon one. The Turks and Arabs of Egypt are great smokers, but not so with the other tribes. The Mongrabins, scarcely know the use of a pipe, or the method of manufacturing a cigar, yet tobacco is well known, and chewing is the order of the day. With them each piece of tobacco is mixed with a portion of natron. Master and servant, rich and poor, all carry about them a pouch of tobacco, with pieces of natron in it. These people do not carry the quid in their cheek, as do the Europeans who indulge in the habit, but in front, between the teeth and the upper lip.
 
The blacks of Gesira have another method of enjoying this luxury. They make a cold infusion of tobacco, and dissolve the natron in it. This mixture is called “bucca.” The natives take a mouthful of it from the bucca cup, which they keep rinsing and working about in their mouths for a quarter of an hour before they eject it. So much do they delight in it, that it is considered the highest treat a man can offer to his dearest friends, to invite them to sip the bucca with him. Bucca parties are given, as in some localities tea parties are honoured. All sit in solemn silence as the cup goes round, each taking a mouthful, and nothing is heard save the gurgling and working inside the closed mouths. On such occasions the most important questions receive no reply, for to open the mouth and answer would be to lose the cherished “bucca.”
 
In Iceland, tobacco is chewed and snuffed as assiduously as it is smoked in other countries; and in the northern states of Europe, or some of them, the powdered leaf, which, with most people is deemed a preparation for the nose, is placed, a99 pinch at a time, upon the tongue. Of Joubert’s statement we scarce know what opinion to hold. He says, “When a stranger arrives in Greenland, he is immediately surrounded ............