Tobacco was most probably used for the
first time by Mayas and then by various Amerindian tribes,
particularly during religious and social rituals.Tobacco was, above all, a sacred and
curative plant used by priests and shamen. Its smoke was used to
communicate with spirits and to soothe pains.It was consumed rolled in the shape of a
kind of long cigar or by means of a long tube called
"tobago".In South America, the discovery of more
than 2000 years old pipes but also of portraits of gods and priests
smoking corroborates this hypothesis.
Nevertheless, tobacco was only discovered
around 1492 when Christopher Columbus (1450-1506) reached Cuba.
There, he found an herb smoked through the mouth or the nose, mainly
in the shape of a long tube of rolled leaves and decided to import it
for the very first time in Europe.