Show antiquity onus J D o of the N national museum announces his discovery e ry of the fact that the an ancient chent P romans smoked ed of course they kaev not tobacco which is a plant nativo native and peculiar to tho the now new world but they used several other herbs and of ti ese four have bave been definitely identified by mr mcguire cGuire Al this news upsets the IOD long accepted theory that the practice of smoking was invented by tho the american aborigines and was unknown elsewhere in the world until after the landing of columbus unquestionably smoking had already been practiced by the indians or cen tones when columbus first reached these shores etwas it was with them to a great extent a form of religious ceremonial dr daniel Q G brinton the famous ethnologist thinks that it had its beginning in the blowing tube of the medicine man ignorant savages are d disposed i s p s e to r regard e g a r d tho h human u m a n bre breath a t h a as s p possessing 0 s ses s i ing m magical a g i c al pr properties 0 pe r ti iea es n and n d i it t may be supposed that burning leaves were nvere introduced into the tube for the purpose of making the breathing visible the indians smoked many kinds binds of plants such as sumac red willow bark and the leaves of the kinnikinnick kinni kinai kinick or bear berry and tobacco doubtless was wag a discovery resulting from a selection of the fittest the earliest indian pipes wera simply tubes in one end of which the tobacco or dried leaves were put mr M mcguira cguire finds that the pipes used by the ancient homana boms were made on tho the sane same plan the bowl being an invention reserved for a comparatively recent day washington cor st louis globe democrat |