Nose for snuff?

Our youth called them by name; like all the city girls in general, but always with a certain nickname, the basis of which was the nose. Nose? - the reader will think to himself. Yes, undoubtedly the nose, speaking mostly in the physiognomy of the face, and therefore of the person. We therefore had a separate nasal terminology: Coryolan, hooked, thick, airy, pear-shaped, cherry, for snuff, etc., with certain subdivisions that this important part of the face deserves.

Albert Wilczyński (1829-1900) regaled us with such a sentence in his “Love and Recidivism”. It appeared in my book materials for quite a long time - counting a bit on the fact that one day I would come up with an interesting chapter idea about the “nose for snuff”. That day never came, but I decided to share this quote, hoping that someone might try to expand on the author’s thoughts and answer the question: what should a nose for snuff be like?

Another fragment could come to our aid - this time - by Witalis Komujedzie from “Chaos - a pinch of incense for poets” (1836), where he wrote: A nose after a sneeze is a poet aware of the exhibition of his art in the theater. Look how he blushed! I assure you that it is not from shame. It is a blush of satisfaction, a feeling of happiness that can only be experienced after taking snuff, or being a poet.


Illustation: “Snuffy nose” by Leon Kunicki.

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Language is the liquid that we’re all dissolved in.