Manchurian Books

When Torres had drunk a little of this mixture he shook the flask,
and discovered, not without regret, that it was nearly empty.
"Must get some more," he said very quietly.
Then taking out a short wooden pipe, he filled it with the coarse and
bitter tobacco of Brazil, of which the leaves belong to that old
_"petun"_ introduced into France by Nicot, to whom we owe the
popularization of the most productive and widespread of the
solanaceae.
This native tobacco had little in common with the fine qualities of
our present manufacturers; but Torres was not more difficult to
please in this matter than in others, and so, having filled his pipe,
he struck a match and applied the flame to a piece of that stick
substance which is the secretion of certain of the hymenoptera, and
is known as "ants' amadou." With the amadou he lighted up, and after
about a dozen whiffs his eyes closed, his pipe escaped from his
fingers, and he fell asleep.
[1] One thousand reis are equal to three francs, and a conto of reis
is worth three thousand francs.


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