The origin of tobacco is thus given in an old Arabic legend, reported in the Conte Arabe:— The prophet was taking a stroll in the country when he saw a serpent, stiff with cold, lying on the ground. He compassionately took it up and warmed it in his bosom. When the serpent had recovered, it said:— “Divine prophet, listen. I am now going to bite thee.” “Why, pray?” inquired Mohammed. “Because thy race persecutes mine and tries to stamp it out.” “But does not thy race, too, make perpetual war against mine?” was the prophet’s rejoinder. “How canst thou, besides, be so ungrateful, and so soon forget that I saved thy life?” “There is no such thing as gratitude upon this earth,” replied the serpent; “and if I were now to spare thee, either thou or another of thy race would kill me. By Allah, I shall bite thee.” “If thou hast sworn by Allah, I will not cause thee to break thy vow,” said the prophet, holding his hand to the serpent’s mouth. The serpent bit him, but he sucked the wound with his lips and spat the venom on the ground. And on that very spot there sprang up a plant which combines within itself the venom of the serpent and the compassion of the prophet. Men call this plant by the name of tobacco. A recent newspaper item furnishes the Ram’s Horn with the text for a small anti-chewing homily. It says:— “A Kentucky thoroughbred took a chew of leaf tobacco and lay down and died. The experiment of this horse to try to be a man cost his owner ten thousand dollars. Should race-horses take to drink, every turf-man would be in favor of prohibition in the paddocks and on the track.”