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Smokiana: Historical; Ethnographical cover

Smokiana: Historical; Ethnographical

Chapter 11: AFRICA.
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About This Book

A richly illustrated survey documents the history, botany, and ethnography of tobacco and related smoking plants alongside a catalog of pipes and smoking apparatus from around the world. It describes botanical varieties of Nicotiana, regional smoking customs, and the materials and forms of pipes — clay, briar, soapstone, gourd, hookah and opium apparatus — and reproduces historic woodcuts and maker stamps. Organized as descriptive entries with images and captions, the work compares local manufacturing traditions, ceremonial uses, and changing fashions in smoking paraphernalia across Europe, Asia, Africa, the Americas, and the Pacific.

AFRICA.

Everywhere in the Dark Continent the habit of smoking something or somehow has been met with by our most energetic explorers even in the dense forests of new Equatoria. The Pigmies find it desirable to have something to smoke. Paul Du Chaillu in 1856 brought to our notice the Pipes shewn at the top of the next page. These are used by The Fans, a fierce Cannibal tribe—great in the mystery of Iron work, and are generally made of red or very dark clay. The Specimen from SANKURU River LAT 5° S is of wood & very beautifully carved.—The Bone Pipe is very like a Cigar Holder