American Indians at the various tasks of grinding, pressing, moistening, and drying tobacco. A man is smoking in the background. Throughout South and North America, tobacco was used consumed in a diversity of ways: it was chewed, sniffed, smoked, eaten, juiced, smeared over bodies, and used in eye drops and enemas. Its use varied depending on the culture and location - it ranged from medicinal as a remedy for many ailments and also mystical - a connection to the spiritual world: it's purifying smoke was blown over fields before planting, over women prior to sex, blown into warriors' faces before battle, it was offered to gods as well as accepted as their gift. In other words, tobacco smoke was believed to carry blessings, protection and most of all purification. Engraving from "Traict矇 du tabac", 1626.