among the Arabs and other nations of the East, is a pipe of a singular and complicated construction, through which tobacco is smoked: out of a small vessel of a globular form, and nearly full of water, issue two tubes, one perpendicularly, on which is placed the tobacco; the other obliquely from the side of the vessel, and to that the person who smokes applies his mouth; the smoke by this means being drawn through water, is cooled in its passage and rendered more grateful: one takes a whiff, draws up a large quantity of smoke, puffs it out of his nose and mouth in an immense cloud, and passes the hookah to his neighbour; and thus it goes round the whole circle.—The hookah is known and used throughout the east; but in those parts of it where the refinements of life prevail greatly, every one has his hookah sacred to himself; and it is frequently an implement of a very costly nature, being of silver, and set with precious stones; in the better kind, that tube which is applied to the mouth is very long and plaint; and for that reason is termed the snake: people who use it in a luxurious manner, fill the vessel through which the smoke is drawn with rose water, and it thereby receives some of the fragrant quality of that fluid.