Chapter C: P. Ph

_Antiquity of Smoking_ (Vol ii., pp. 216. 521.)--C. B. says, alluding to JARLTZBERG's references, "there is nothing in Solinus;" I read, however, in Solinus, cap. xv. (fol. 70. ed. Ald. 1518), under the heading, "Thracum mores, etc.":

"Uterque sexus epulantes focos ambiunt, herbarum quas habent
semine ignibus superjecto. Cujus nidore perculsi pro laetitia
habent imitari ebrietatem sensibus sauciatis."

JARLTZBERG's reference to Herod. i. 36. supplies nothing to the point: Herod. iv. 2. mentions the use of bone pipes, [Greek: physeteras osteinous], by the Scythians, _in milking_; but Herodotus (iv. 73. 75.) describes the orgies of the Scythians, who produced intoxicating fumes by strewing hemp-seed upon red-hot stones, as the leaves and seed of the Hasisha al fokara, or hemp-plant, are smoked in the East at the present day. (See De Sacy, _Chrestom. Arabe_, vol. ii. p. 155.) Compare also Plutarch de Fluviis (_de Hebro_, fr. 3.), who speaks of a plant resembling Origanum, from which the Thracians procured a stupefying vapour, by burning the stalks:

"[Greek: Epititheasi pyri ... kai ten anapheromenen anathymiasin
dechomenoi tais anapnoiais, karountai, kai eis bathyn hypnon
katapherontai.] [Opera Varia, vol. vi. p. 444. ed. Tauchn.]"