I thought my fellow forum members might enjoy this description of how a Chinese peasant, in a poor rural village, practiced the art of pipe smoking (this is an excerpt from a book I am editing on modern Chinese history):
"A little after 3 o’clock in the morning, he woke up and could not go back to sleep anymore. So he got up, put a soft yellow paper roll next to a flint, and lit the roll with a couple of strikes of a small iron chip on the flint. Then he took out the tobacco, about the size of fava bean, with his right thumb, index finger and the middle finger, from a cloth bag attached to his bamboo tobacco pipe. He shifted the tobacco into his left hand. With the paper roll between the ring finger and small finger of his right hand, he got a little tobacco from the left hand, made a pea size ball, and put it into the little pit on one end of the pipe. Then he blew on the cinders of the paper roll. Immediately, the fire formed. With the fire on the tobacco, he sucked in the smoke from the other end of the pipe. After 2 to 3 puffs, the tobacco was burned out. Then he shook out the ashes. He put another bean of tobacco in the pit of the pipe, and smoked again until all the tobacco from his left hand was gone. Then he inserted the paper roll with the cinders into a bamboo stick attached to the pipe to extinguish the cinders, and struck the pipe on the edge of his shoe sole to clean up the ash in the pit, the inserted it into his belt."
"A little after 3 o’clock in the morning, he woke up and could not go back to sleep anymore. So he got up, put a soft yellow paper roll next to a flint, and lit the roll with a couple of strikes of a small iron chip on the flint. Then he took out the tobacco, about the size of fava bean, with his right thumb, index finger and the middle finger, from a cloth bag attached to his bamboo tobacco pipe. He shifted the tobacco into his left hand. With the paper roll between the ring finger and small finger of his right hand, he got a little tobacco from the left hand, made a pea size ball, and put it into the little pit on one end of the pipe. Then he blew on the cinders of the paper roll. Immediately, the fire formed. With the fire on the tobacco, he sucked in the smoke from the other end of the pipe. After 2 to 3 puffs, the tobacco was burned out. Then he shook out the ashes. He put another bean of tobacco in the pit of the pipe, and smoked again until all the tobacco from his left hand was gone. Then he inserted the paper roll with the cinders into a bamboo stick attached to the pipe to extinguish the cinders, and struck the pipe on the edge of his shoe sole to clean up the ash in the pit, the inserted it into his belt."
