Man with tobacco box

"Today, people smoke cigarettes or papirosy, but not long ago, the Itelmens used lemishina instead – just as I still remember seeing with my aunt, Grunya Sadovnikova. Lemishina is birch ash mixed with a bit of tobacco. Tobacco was introduced to us by the Russians. When they stopped growing it, we began using knaster instead. Eventually, both women and men would place lemishina in their mouths. It was said to keep the teeth strong."