I was just talking about this with an indigenous friend of mine from Brazil. He smokes a strong black rope tobacco flavoured with some herbs from the Amazon. His supply is small scale grown tobacco that is supposedly "organic"
The herbs take the edge off a little bit, but it is far too strong for me. It gave me the dry heaves after a bowl. I tried it without the herbs and it was the same. It felt like I was smoking straight perique. I can handle a bowl of nightcap just fine, for reference. This would be about 10 notches above that, from what I felt.
My friend took me to a tribe of Tupi Guarani near Sao Paulo. They use large pipes for daily use, which is basically a block of wood with angular carvings. But, they also have some ornamental pipes of various forest creatures. Those don't seem to be used much though.
The one very interesting thing I saw was a group of kids, no more than 9 years old, smoking pipes. I did a triple take on that one. Nobody cares.
We were later in their ceremonial lodge for the evening and everyone was smoking a pipe. So much, you could hardly make out a person on the other side of the room. Not wanting to offend anyone, I asked if it was ok for me to smoke too. It was fine. When I pulled out my bent apple and loaded it with my own tobacco, they howled. I didn't speak Portuguese so well at the time, but the gist of it was that I was smoking a pipe suitable for an infant.
Here's the typical style of pipe. I have one of these, and an ornamental ant-eater pipe. The large block pipe has a bamboo shank on mine. Instead of cleaning it, you just swap it out with a new one when the gunk is too much. Very cool smoking pipe, but I rarely use it.
The herbs take the edge off a little bit, but it is far too strong for me. It gave me the dry heaves after a bowl. I tried it without the herbs and it was the same. It felt like I was smoking straight perique. I can handle a bowl of nightcap just fine, for reference. This would be about 10 notches above that, from what I felt.
My friend took me to a tribe of Tupi Guarani near Sao Paulo. They use large pipes for daily use, which is basically a block of wood with angular carvings. But, they also have some ornamental pipes of various forest creatures. Those don't seem to be used much though.
The one very interesting thing I saw was a group of kids, no more than 9 years old, smoking pipes. I did a triple take on that one. Nobody cares.
We were later in their ceremonial lodge for the evening and everyone was smoking a pipe. So much, you could hardly make out a person on the other side of the room. Not wanting to offend anyone, I asked if it was ok for me to smoke too. It was fine. When I pulled out my bent apple and loaded it with my own tobacco, they howled. I didn't speak Portuguese so well at the time, but the gist of it was that I was smoking a pipe suitable for an infant.
Here's the typical style of pipe. I have one of these, and an ornamental ant-eater pipe. The large block pipe has a bamboo shank on mine. Instead of cleaning it, you just swap it out with a new one when the gunk is too much. Very cool smoking pipe, but I rarely use it.
