THE INDIANS AND TOBACCO



Tobacco is the gift of the gods to mankind. At least, that was one of the mythological explanations that the Indians used to explain the origins of tobacco. In fact, some Indian tribes believed that it was their duty to make sure that the gods were never denied tobacco smoke. For this reason, they gave their medicine men or dream-makers the responsibility of blowing smoke up to the gods. Other tribes threw tobacco leaves or powdered tobacco onto the fire as an offering or a sign of gratitude to the gods. In other cases, tobacco was used to settle disputes? The pipe of peace being the used to conclude peace treaties.

Over the years, a wealth of archaeological finds have revealed that smoking gods and priests played a prominent role in the stone relief's of the Maya people.
 
This civilization first used tobacco as part of their religious rituals. The tobacco plant was used as a hallucinogenic drug, which, if smoked in ‘correct' quantities, could produce a trance or even unconsciousness. This meant that in many places, tobacco was considered to have divine powers.

However, tobacco was more to the Indians than just a religious item. It was smoked for pleasure, and the medicine men used it to cure a range of illnesses. But it was clear that many natives smoked tobacco purely for pleasure, and it was this fact that amazed Christopher Columbus and his men the first time they saw the Indians smoking tobacco.
 

THANK YOU, COLUMBUS



Columbus made many discoveries when, around 500 years ago, he took a wrong turn and landed in the West Indies. One of these discoveries was the Indian herb - tobacco.

The Indians had already discovered the pleasure of sitting quietly smoking the pipe of peace long before Christopher Columbus ‘discovered' America when he accidentally went ashore in the West Indies in October 1492. However, it was not the pipe of peace that the native men and women were smoking, but rather a pleasant-smelling, dried herb rolled in leaves. The rolled-up plants were held in a fork-shaped pipe that the Indians called ‘tobacco'.

Although it was perhaps the greatest adventurer of all time who ‘discovered' tobacco, it was Hernandez de Toledo - the court physician of Philip II of Spain who first described
 

the plant after studying it in Mexico in 1559. Toledo was interested in tobacco as a medicinal herb. On the other hand, the French Carmelite monk André Thevet picked up the idea from the natives when he landed in Brazil in 1555. He soon made plans to grow tobacco himself, and sell it for smoking.

 

Therefore, he collected thousands of the tiny seeds and became famous as the man who really brought tobacco to Europe.time they saw the Indians smoking tobacco.

 

THE COLONY OF VIRGINIA


In the 1600s, tobacco in the form of fine powder was used as snuff among high society in Europe. At that time - and in fact as early as the late 1500s - hardy seamen could already be seen puffing on their long-stemmed pipes in harbours all over Europe.

The tobacco fashion came on in leaps and bounds towards the end of the 1500s when the English explorer Sir Walter Raleigh sailed on a voyage of discovery to North America for Queen Elizabeth I and founded the colony of Virginia. Sir Walter was probably the first dedicated non-Indian pipe-smoker in history.

TOBACCO AS MEDICINE


When Columbus brought tobacco to Europe, people soon came
 

to realize that the Indians had also used the plant for medicinal purposes and interest in this new product increased dramatically. At that time, all kinds of herbs were already being used as curative medicines in Europe, and so tobacco soon became vitally important to the future development of medical science.

 
 Tobacco plants soon began to appear in the herb gardens of a number of monasteries in Spain and Portugal, and all kinds of experiments were carried out on tobacco to discover how to use it to greatest effect. To start with, tobacco was used to cure coughing, skin complaints and headaches.

It was at around this time that the French ambassador Jean Nicot - from whose name the word ‘nicotine' is derived - introduced tobacco to the Spanish Court, where doctors were attempting to cure Catherine de Medici's migraine attacks. She soon became a keen tobacco-user, and the fashion of smoking tobacco for pleasure gained rapidly in popularity.
 

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