ere called lily-pots; that is, white jars. It was cut on a
maple block; juniper-wood, which retains fire well, was used for
lighting pipes, and among the rich, silver tongs were employed for
taking up a coal of it. Tobacco was sometimes called "the American
Silver-Weed."

The Turkish vizier thrust pipes through the noses of smokers; and the
Shah of Persia cropped the ears and slit the noses of those who made use
of the fascinating leaf. The _Counterblast_ says of it: "And for the
vanity committed in this filthy custom, is it not both great vanity and
uncleanness, that at the table--a place of respect of cleanliness, of
modesty--men should not be ashamed to sit tossing of tobacco-pipes and
puffing of smoke, one at another, making the filthy smoke and stink
thereof to exhale athwart the dishes, and infect the air, when very
often men who abhor it are at their repast? Surely smoke becomes a
kitchen far better than a dining-chamber; and yet it makes the kitchen
oftentimes in the inward parts of man, soiling and infecting them with
an unctuous and oily kind of soot, as hath been found in some great
tobacco-takers that after their deaths were opened."

The _Counterblast to Tobacco_ was first printed in quarto, without name
or date, at London, 1616. In the frontpiece were engraved the
tobacco-pipes, cross-bones, death's-head, etc. It is not improbable that
it was directly intended to foment the popular prejudice against Sir
Walter Raleigh, who was put to death in the same year (1616). James
alludes to the introduction of the use of tobacco and to Raleigh as
follows: "It is not so long since the first entry of this abuse among us
here, as that this present age cannot very well remember both the first
author and the form of the first introduction of it among us. It was
neither brought in by king, great conqueror, nor learned doctor of
physic. With the report of a great discovery for a conquest, some two or
three savage men were brought in together with this savage custom; but
the pity is, the poor wild barbarous men died, but that vile barbarous
custom is still alive, yea, in fresh vigor, so as it seems a miracle to
me how a custom springing from so vile a ground, and brought in by a
father so generally hated, should be welcomed upon so slender a
warrant."

The King thus reasons against the Virginia staple: "Secondly, it is, as
you use or rather abuse it, a branch of the sin of drunkenness, which is
the root of all sins, for