Stamboul clay. The pipe, was ordinarily presented,
as in Syria, by a bowing attendant, holding
in the left hand a brass saucer supporting
the bowl, and with the right presenting the
mouthpiece. But at. meals his Highness smoked
the hookah, and inhaled some whiffs between
every dish of which he partook. No hookah
was offered to his guests, but the chibouk, with
coffee, both preceded and followed the meal.
Sherbet, was sometimes, but not ordinarily,
introduced. The pasha drank wine— the very best
claret— with moderation, but always out of a
silver cup, to avoid giving scandal, the colour of
the beverage not being visible from without.
Ibrahim Pasha smoked as much as, but drank
more than, his father. I remember when,
in one of his illnesses, his French physician told
him he had brought him some medicine, he said
he hoped it was from Bordeaux.

The tobacco of Latakia is that ordinarily
consumed by "the quality" in the Levant. It is
generally preserved in goats'-skins, and is only
cut a short time before it is used, in order that
the flavour and aroma may not be diminished.
Egyptian women smoke as well as men, but, as
in Syria, the narghilé is more in fashion than
the chibouk. The pipe is one of the attendant
luxuries of the hot bath, and certainly its
enjoyment is maximised when, after undergoing
the shampooing process in all its varieties,
you repose on a soft couch, covered with Cashmere
shawls, sip the delicious coffee, and
dreamingly or drowsily inhale and exhale the
Latakian clouds. The best baths I have
entered were not, however, in Egypt, but in
Syria, at the palace of the Prince of the Druses
—the prince of smokers, too, as I have before
said. I understand the baths, the beys,
the beauties of Lebanon, are ruined and
scattered now. Twenty years ago, I saw them in
their glory. On being introduced into the
presence of a Turkish dignitary, and invited to sit
down in his divan, the last sounds he generally
utters are, "Gel chibouk!" being a mandate to
the attendants to bring pipes to the guests.
The pipes are splendid, according to the rank of
the visitor and the disposition of the host to do
him honour. I was informed that the collection
of pipes possessed by one of the pashas had
cost £30,000 sterling, and it was said the diamonds
which decorated a single pipe sometimes
used by the Viceroy of Egypt, represented a
tenth of that amount in value. Independently of
rings of large diamonds round the amber mouthpiece,
it is not unusual to see tassels of diamonds
suspended from the pipe. But these very
costly appurtenances are used only on rare
occasions. Stems of the cherry-tree and the jasmine
are held to make the best pipe-sticks. They are
sometimes covered witli costly coloured silks--
the longer and the straighter the stem of the
pipe the greater is its value. The bowls are
ornamented and gilded, but are invariably of red
clay.

The pride of pipes is the most ostentatious
of Oriental extravagances; there is, in fact, no
limit to expenditure in the jewellery which
ornaments the most costly of the appurtenances.

Yet precious as is the chibouk, I once saw a
bey, exasperated against one of his servants
rush at him with the precious pipe he was
smoking, and which he broke upon his vassal's
person, while pouring out a cataract of abuse.
The bey seemed to look upon the destruction of
iis pipe with utter disregard— no doubt on
account of the presence of my infidel self to
whom he wished to display his indifference at
the destruction of a valuable possession, but I
doubt not the victim of his rage afterwards paid a
severe penalty for having caused the misfortune
to his master. In domestic arrangements, the
servants who have the care of the cleansing, filling,
and custody of the pipes, are among the most
important functionaries of Oriental establishments.
Woe to such servant, if the pipe be filthy,
difficult to smoke, if the tobacco be too much
or too little pressed, if the bit of fire be improperly
located! For all he is responsible; his
are the first whiffs, and it is only when all is in
perfect order that he is expected to hand over
the pipe to his master and his master's guests.

The noisiest spot of industry in the world—
at least as far as human voices are concerned—
is probably the cigar manufactory in Binondo,
where about eight thousand young women are
collected for the manufacture of cigars, or
cheroots, as they are generally called east of the
Cape of Good Hope. The quantity of tobacco
produced in the Philippines is enormous. That
which is exported, represents the value of more
than a million pounds sterling, and it is believed
the consumption in the islands considerably
exceeds that which is sent away. The government
has a monopoly, both for the purchase of the leaf,
and the sale of the manufactured cigar. But
the Indian cultivator, naturally enough, keeps
for his own use, or for that of his friends, or
for clandestine sale, the best produce of his
gardens. In travelling through these charming
regions, where the courtesy of offering you a
cigar is an universal practice, you may be pretty
certain to learn that the cigar is not of the
estanco or government shop. In the remoter
districts, authority is too weak to enforce the
monopoly, and the native enjoys unmolested the
fruits of his labour; in them none participate
more largely than the friars, who, nominally the
spiritual guides, are really the paramount rulers
among the Indians. The convents are always
supplied with the choicest specimens of the
cigarro and cigarrito, and a vaso de buen vino is
seldom wanting to give them additional flavour.
The presents from the islands generally pass
through the hands of the monks, or are offered
in the convents. On one occasion, some native
villagers in the island of Panay brought to me a
cigar five feet long, made of the finest tobacco,
the largest they declared that had ever been
manufactured. It was considerably thicker than
my arm. This excited the competing ambition of
a neighbouring locality, and two days after, I re-
ceived a cigar seven feet in length and of the
size of a man's thigh. I presented the cigar to
the museum of Her Majesty's garden at Kew.