acco in the bowl being lighted, each man of a party takes a suck at
the pipe in his turn." Tilston, who witnessed the operation, describes
it as a most ludicrous one.
"The smoker gives a pull at the pipe,
gulping in a quantity of Tobacco vapour, the cubic
measurement of which my informant would be afraid to guess
at. All the muscles of the body seem in a temporary
convulsion whilst it is being taken in, and the neighbour to
whom the pipe is transferred follows suit by inhaling as if
he were trying to swallow down brass tube, bowl, Tobacco,
fire, and all. Meanwhile, there issues from the nose and
mouth of the previous smoker such a cumulus of cloud as for
a few seconds to render his face quite invisible."
Tobacco is
more used in Chili than in the other countries on the Pacific side of
South America; this is owing to the extensive use of the leaves of the
Cocoa plant as a narcotic by the natives of Bolivia, Peru, and
Colombia.

[Illustration: South Americans smoking.]

We refrain from enlarging on the nature and use of this narcotic, as
on some future occasion we may take an opportunity of making some
observations on Cocoa, which according to Jonson, holds an undisputed
sway over some seven or eight millions of the inhabitants of South
America. The Indians formerly inhabiting the high table-lands of what
is now called Peru and Bolivia appear prior to the invasion of the
Spaniards to have been much further advanced in civilization than the
races occupying the other portions of South America; and there is a
strong probability that they are of a different origin from the races
occupying Chili, Patagonia, Brazil, and the great district washed by
the waters of the West Indian Sea. Science as yet cannot give anything
like an accurate idea of the time man has existed in these
widely-diversified countries, but we cannot go wrong in accepting the
statement of Darwin, who observes that
"we must admit that man has
inhabited South America for an immensely long period,
inasmuch as any change in climate, effected by the elevation
of the land must have been extremely gradual."

Another writer says of the pipes of the Indians of North America:

"Great variety of form and material distinguishes the pipes
of the modern Indians; arising in part