ANTIQUITY OF SMOKING

In Vol. ii., p. 286., an allusion is made by a correspondent to the following verses of the comic poet Crobylus, in reference to the antiquity of smoking: Α. "Ἐγὼ δὲ πρὸς τὰ θερμὰ ταῦθ' ὑπερβολῇ Τοὺς δακτύλους δήπουθεν ἰδαίους ἔχω, Καὶ τὸν λάρυγγ' ἥδιστα πυριῶ τεμαχίοις. Β. "Κάμινος, οὺκ ἄνθρωπος." Athen I. p. 5. F. The two last verses are thus rendered in the passage referred to: "And I will sweetly burn my throat with cuttings; A chimney, not a man." Athenæus is describing the fondness of the ancient gourmands for eating their food extremely hot. As they had no forks, but, like the modern Or…