4
Read and listen to the story. In pairs think of how to make
Think what props you may need.
AN EASTERN LEGEND ABOUT TOBACCO
A long time ago when tobacco had just appeared in the Caucasus, there lived at the
foot of a high mountain a wise old man. He took a dislike to tobacco and tried to
persuade others not to smoke it.
Once a group of foreign merchants came to the village where the old man lived to sell
tobacco. They tried hard to make the old man support them, but they could not
One day the old man saw that a crowd of people had gathered round the merchants who
were shouting: 'O divine leaf, o divine leaf, which cures all ailments!"
Then the wise man said, 'But that is not all! This divine leaf brings people other
advantages: no thief will enter the house of a man who smokes, no dog will bite him.
and he will never grow old.' The merchants looked at him with joy. 'Explain your words
to us, o wise old man,' they asked him. Ź
'No thief will enter the house of a man who smokes,' he replied, 'because that man will
be coughing all night, and no thief likes to go into the house of one who is awake. After
several years of smoking a man will grow weak and will walk with a stick. Will a dog bite
a man with a stick? Last, he will never grow old because he will die in his youth
On hearing these words, the peasants went off, determined never to smoke.