Smokers on the Himalayas

Harper's Weekly

November 13, 1869


SMOKERS ON THE HIMALAYAS
"Various are the instruments that have been devised for smoking tobacco; some of them plain, others expensive and elaborate. But perhaps the most novel and curious method of enjoying the narcotic plant is that illustrated in our engraving on this page. This method is in vogue among travelers on the high table-land of Thibet and in the Himalaya Mountains.
"M.R. VON SCHLAGINTWEIT, the famous German traveler, gives the following description: 'The inhabitants of the lower plains, when travelling in the mountains, have a peculiar mode of smoking. They can not indulge in this kind of luxury in their own homes, but have to postpone it until they come to the regions where a solid an compact glacier may be found.
"Then they proceed to dig or cut a hole three--fourths of an inch deep in the solid block, and at a distance of a few inches other holoes one inch deep around, so that the largest hole is in the centre, and connect these by introducing a piece of iron wire underneath the ice, forming in this way so many funnels communicating with the hole in the centre.
"This is filled with tobacco and filled with ignited coals, and the smokers, lying down on blankets to keep off the cold, adapt their mouths to the various holes. In a short time they send forth enormous clouds of smoke, which, arriving ice cold, is charged with all the narcotic substance of the plant. The solidity of the glacier is such that only very little is melted, just enough to furnish a certain amount of humidity to the burning tobacco."
"M. SCHLAGINTWEIT assures us that all other modes of smoking are not worth mentioning in comparison with this, and that no instrument of any kind, invented to refine and enjoy the tobacco-smoke, can supply the palce of the primitive but ingenious method adopted by the Penjab and Thibet natives."


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