HOOKAH. HIND. The Indian pipe and appar atm for smoking. In Bengal generally, and in Persia, pure tobacco is rarely smoked ; but various compounds are made and smoked in hookahs of various forma, the ghalyuu of Arabia, nargyle of Persia, hubble-bubble of British India generally, and the highly ornamental hookah. The nargyle is doubtless a word derived from Narel, a cocoanut, for the primitive form of hookah is the narel, a hollow cocoanut shell half-filled with water. On one side of the shell is inserted a pipe, which is connected with the fire-pan and tobacco-holder (chillam), and on the other side is inserted another tube, which goes into the mouth of the smoker. When the smoker draws, the smoke from the first pipe (the end of which is under water), is drawn up with a bubbling noise through the water (hence the term hubble-bubble), and is thus cooled and purified. The flexible tube (necha) of the more elaborate hookah is made of a long coil of iron wire covered with cloth and ornamented. This was invented in Akbar's time.
A hookah for smoking madhan (opium), with a peculiar shaped chillam, is called Madhaki. In Lower Bengal the lower orders frequently smoke in companies, with one hubble-bubble or narel or kalli, which are the most ordinary and cheap forms. All sitting round iu a ring, the pipe passes from one to another, each taking a few whiffs as it passes. This is never done by the higher orders, nor is it done in Hindustan. The Sulfah form of hookah is the commonest in Kabul and Peshawur. The hookah has almost ceased to be used by Europeans in India, but natives continue to use it with gurako or prepared tobacco. Some hookah-snake tubes are very costly, the precious metals and precious gems being largely employed in their manufacture. The snake or pliable orna mental tubing lengthens out into several coils, and the smoke passes through a water-vase, while the mouthpiece is of amber, silver, etc.—Sbn iizonds' Diet.; Robinson's !ravels, ii. p. 226.