e nostrils, deprives them of reason
for some hours, and renders them furious in battle." Humboldt,
however, has shown that this stimulating snuff is not the product of
the tobacco plant, but of a species of acacia, Niopo being made from
the pods of the plant after they have undergone a process of
fermentation. Captain Burton, when traveling in the Highlands of
Brazil, found the tobacco plant growing spontaneously, which made him
conclude that it is indigenous to Brazil. He found the "Aromatic
Brazilian" a kind of tobacco with thin leaves and a pink flower, which
is "much admired in the United States, and there found to lose its
aroma after the second year." It is usually asserted that the tobacco
grown in Brazil contains only two per cent. of nicotine, but Captain
Burton is disposed to doubt this, as he states that some varieties of
the "holy herb" grown at Sa'a' Paulo and Nimos suggests a larger
proportion. In the small towns in the Highlands of Brazil, Captain
Burton found that excellent cigars, better than many "Havannas," were
retailed at a halfpenny each. In La Plata, Paraguay, and other
countries to the south of Brazil, nearly every person smokes, and an
American traveler quoted by Mr. Cooke states that women and girls
above thirteen years of age use the weed in the form of quids. 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." A European visiting Paraguay for the first time is rather
astonished at the conduct of the fair beauty, but such is the force of
custom that the squeamishness of the new-comer is soon overcome, when
he finds that he has to kiss every lady to whom he is introduced; and
the traveler says that "one half of those you meet are really tempting
enough to render you reckless of consequences."

Smoking is practised by the natives of Patagonia, who are a tall and
muscular class of men, though not such giants as represented by the
early voyagers. Hutchinson, in a valuable paper on the Indians of
South America has an account of the Pehuenches, one of the principal
tribes of Patagonia, in which he states that "their chief indulgence
is smoking. The native pipes are fabricated out of a piece of stone,
fashioned into the shape of a bowl, into which is inserted a long
brass tube. The latter is obtained by barter at Bohia Blanca. The
tob