The Discovery of Tobacco (All For Humor)

The history of tobacco says the plant is native to North and South America, but doesn't say anything about the person who discovered it and smoked it first. This unjust history is disappointing as it fails to give due credit to a great discoverer. He deserves a mention in history as much as Christopher Columbus who discovered America, smoked tobacco, brought back tobacco to Europe and popularized it. Here is the story of the person who discovered tobacco.

Long long time ago, many many sun and moons away from today, in a cave on earth lived a group of human beings. They don't have proper names as they were yet to invent something called language. The members communicate using signs and weird sounds. The group eat meat of wild animals hunted by the male members in the group, and roots and leaves gathered by the women folk from outside the cave.

After living for five years in the cave someone in the group accidentally invented fire by striking two stones. This was when everyone in the group were inspired to make more discoveries. There was sort of a mad competition among the male members to compete inventing new things. Many inventions were made within a matter of few months. Thus the group started using new tools and the cave was transformed from just being a rusty hole to a very advanced dwelling place.

Among the male members there was one cunning and lazy fellow who was never keen on competing with others. He seldom go out for hunting and spent most of his days sleeping and eating. He has all the excuses for not contributing in the welfare of the group. One day as he was strolling lazily outside the cave he saw some strange leaves covered with sticky starch. He smelled the pungent leaf, pluck it and crushed it to ascertain the taste. The taste of the leaf numbed his tongue. He plucked few leaves to play some dirty pranks on others. He went back to the cave and gave to some in the group and asked them to taste it telling them it taste heavenly. He even told them the juice can be applied to cuts and injuries.

No one liked the taste and even the smell. One man in the group who had a cut on his leg applied the juice on his cut and howled like a wolf due to the excruciating pain. However, miraculously the wound slowly got healed. This was when the people in the group started believing the plant has medicinal value. The credit for the discovery without doubt went to the lazy fellow, which made him to ponder on finding more about the leaves' utility.

So, one day, he went and plucked some leaves and dried them in the sun and on the fire. When the leaves were dried, he was not sure what to use the leaves for. He took one of the dried leaves and rolled it while he kept on thinking. He lit up the tip of the rolled leaf and watch it burn slowly and saw smoke coming out of the other end. Out of sheer curiosity, he took a puff of the smoke and his mouth became numb for a while. He took a second puff and with that puff he felt some lightness in his head. He was feeling happy, others who were watching him throughout thought a strange thing would happen to the man. Nothing happened, but from then on he was seen rolling up the dried leaf and puffing on it frequently.

Others in the group soon started smoking the dried leaves and the leave came to be called tobacco. This is the story of how tobacco was invented. Ekk, is the name of the person which means 'the lazy sleep monger.'