20. Pipe Festival. It all started across the Big Water...

Christopher Columbus probably did not even dream that he would soon discover a continent beyond the Great Water when the native inhabitants of America were enjoying a pipe. Much earlier, clay or stone pipes were known there. Tobacco and various types of herbs were smoked in them. Their construction was usually similar to the modern pipe, but there were also variants with a split stem, allowing tobacco to be inhaled through the nose, not the mouth. It was the 16th-century Indian sailors who introduced the custom of smoking tobacco to Europe, which quickly gained great popularity. Initially, Europeans used clay pipes, modeled on the Indian ones, but two classic types quickly developed: English and Dutch - both with a long stem, but different in the shape of the head...