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'''Cigars of the Pharaoh''' ('''Les Cigares du pharaon''') is one of ''The Adventures of Tintin'', a series of classic comic-strip albums, written and illustrated by Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero. This was his fourth published adventure and is notable for the introduction of Rastapopoulos and Thomson and Thompson.

Contents

Storyline

Publication History

Development

1930s edition versus 1950s

Comparing French and English editions

Notes

References

External links

Storyline

Tintin and his dog Snowy are on a cruise ship in the Mediterranean Sea when they meet Dr Sarcophagus, an Egyptologist, who tries unsuccessfully to keep a paper from going overboard. The absent-minded Sarcophagus then realizes that the paper is not the Kih-Oskh papyrus he thought it was but some other negligible document. Sarcophagus believes that the papyrus will lead him to the undiscovered tomb of the Pharaoh Kih-Oskh and invites Tintin to accompany him. Tintin also has an unpleasant encounter with Roberto Rastapopoulos, a wealthy businessman.
Later on the cruise Tintin first meets the Thompson twins, who arrest him over some cocaine which has been found in his cabin.
Locked in the hold of the ship, Tintin craftily escapes and meets Sarcophagus in Port Said, Egypt. They set off and discover the tomb of Kih-Oskh. On a nearby sand dune Tintin finds a cigar bearing the symbol of Kih-Oskh — a circle with a wavy line through it and two dots on it, rather like a yin-yang symbol. But, when he returns to the tomb, Sarcophagus has disappeared.
Entering the tomb, Tintin and Snowy are startled several times by doors closing behind them. They come to a room where rows of Egyptologists are mummified. At the end of the row are empty sarcophagi with notices to indicate that they are intended for Tintin, Snowy (and Sarcophagus in the later edition).
Following items of Sarcophagus' clothing which have been left lying about, Tintin enters another room where drugged vapour puts him to sleep.
That night drug smugglers embark some sarcophagi aboard a ship but they are later cast overboard. The sarcophagi contain Tintin and Snowy who thus escape mummification. They are rescued from a gigantic wave by the crew of sailing ship. On it they meet Senhor Oliviera de Figueira, a Portuguese salesman who travels the Middle East selling to local Arabs. He somehow manages to persuade Tintin to buy all manner of utterly useless items. Tintin walks away overloaded with stuff, including a top hat, ski poles, a doghouse on wheels, and a lead for Snowy, accompanied by the thought "Just as well I didn't fall for his patter; you can end up with all sorts of useless stuff if you're not careful".
Tintin then sets out across the desert and is captured by the men of Sheik Patrash Pasha. He hates Westerners but is then delightfully happy to learn that his captive is Tintin, whose exploits he has read of for years.
(He is the only character to have read a Tintin book in the series. He also shows Tintin one of the books he has read, specifically the latest one to be published, which adds a little publicity: in the first B/W version, it was ''Tintin in the Congo''; in the second, ''Tintin in America''; and in the third, ''Destination Moon'', an adventure that, chronologically, would not happen to Tintin for many years.)
Resuming his journey Tintin sees a woman being beaten by two men and rushes to her aid. The woman turns out to be an actress in a movie that Rastapopoulos is making. The director is furious but Rastapopoulos is much calmer. He and Tintin apologise to each other over the incidents on the cruise ship and the filming and become friends.
When Tintin returns to the boat, he discovers that it has been smuggling guns. There is a lengthy comic sequence involving the Thompson twins who accuse him of being the smuggler. They hurry off when they think a grenade is due to explode, enabling Tintin to get away.
In Arabia, Tintin is walking in the desert when his water bottle is shot at and pierced by an unknown gunman. Desperate for water he sets off only to meet Thomson & Thompson who give chase. Later they hit an Arab on the head, mistaking him for Tintin. When Tintin reaches a local city he finds a procession of armed Arabs who claim that one of their sheiks was attacked by two members of a rival tribe, thus providing a pretext for war. Tintin is enlisted by force into the army.
While cleaning the colonel's office, he finds a cigar label with Kih-Oskh's sign. He searches the office for a box of cigars hoping that they will provide a clue but is caught in the act by the colonel and charged with spying. He is executed by firing squad, but does not actually die: the firing squad's rifles had been loaded with blanks. Placed in a ventilated grave, Tintin is later dug up by a pair of mysterious allies. These 'allies' are actually Thomson & Thompson again, who were determined to capture him alive and arranged for his death to be faked.
Tintin flees the city in a military airplane pursued by others. To save himself he takes a dive and lands in India. There Tintin finds Sarcophagus who is painting the sign of Kih-Oskh on the trees. He has gone completely mad and thinks that he is another Pharaoh, Ramesses II.
Tintin and Sarcophagus are taken by elephant to a local outpost of Westerners. Later, Sarcophagus escapes and tries to kill Tintin with a knife. He was hypnotised by a local Fakir who wants Tintin dead. Some remarks by the Fakir lead Tintin to Zloty, a writer, who explains that an international gang of drug smugglers is out to dispose of Tintin. At gunpoint, Tintin orders Zloty to give him the name of the gang's leader but, before he can, the Fakir, from outside the window, blows a dart at Zloty. Zloty goes mad because the dart was tipped with Rajaijah juice, the poison-of-madness.
Tintin takes Sarcophagus and Zloty to the asylum with a letter from a local doctor, but the Fakir has substituted the letter and Tintin ends up imprisoned. He escapes by jumping on an obese inmate and over the wall. Later Snowy is almost sacrificed by angry Indians for frightening their holy cow. The little dog is saved by Thomson & Thompson, acting as the ''Nataraja''. They then use Snowy to track down his master, whom they are still determined to put in jail.
Tintin's escape from the asylum is reported and he is re-captured. While he is being driven back by ambulance, it crashes into the car driven by Sarcophagus and Zloty. Tintin escapes and later meets the Maharaja of Gaipajama. Over dinner they hear music which the Maharaja believes is a warning that he will be driven mad like his relatives due to their opposition to the drug cartel and its oppression of the local farmers.
Tintin arranges for a dummy to be put in the Maharaja's bed. That night the dummy is hit by a dart fired by the fakir.
Tintin follows the fakir to the cartel's hideout. The members within dress up in outfits that bear the symbol of Kih-Oskh and make them look rather like the Ku Klux Klan (as Tintin comments in the English edition). He manages to capture the gang which includes the Fakir, the Arab colonel and several others he met in the course of the adventure. He is later joined by the Maharaja, Snowy and Thomson & Thompson. The tomb of Kih-Oskh was found by the Egyptian police. It contained evidence of Tintin's innocence and a map showing them to the hideout.
The Fakir manages to escape, however, and later he and the cartel's Grand Master kidnap the Maharaja's young son. Tintin chases after them, recovers the boy and captures the Fakir. But the chief falls off a cliff and (presumably) dies. One of the arrested members of the cartel was a servant of the Maharaja. Some cigars found in his room turn out to contain drugs: that is how the smugglers got their product around the world.
The follow-up to ''Cigars of the Pharaoh'' was ''The Blue Lotus'' in 1936.

Publication History

Development

This story, the fourth of the series, appeared between December 1932 and August 1934 in ''Le Petit Vingtième'' (the children's supplement to the Belgian newspaper ''Le Vingtième Siècle''). It was published in form of album (in black and white) in 1934. It was originally published under the name ''Tintin en Orient'' (literally "Tintin in the Orient").
It was redrawn completely in colour in 1955. It is this version which is the most commonly available today.
Like the other early adventures, this story is a sequence of short, unconnected episodes; but for the first time Hergé introduces a common thread: the mysterious cigars. This story brings together many key topics of pulp literature: a curse from the dead, a secret society and the mysterious chief of a ring of opium dealers.
The 1922 discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamon by archaeologist Howard Carter may also have been an influence.
Colour drawings from the 1932 black-and-white version include:
:# Tintin and Snowy in the coffins.
:# The Arab desert.
:# Tintin, Snowy and Prof. Sarcophagus on the elephant in India.
:# Snowy about to be killed for attacking the cow.

1930s edition versus 1950s

Between the 1940s and 60s many of the early Tintin adventures were redrawn and colourised in order to fit in with Hergé's developed ligne claire style. Most of them followed the original plots with the only real differences being in the drawing, colourisation and the more detailed backgrounds. Most of the changes in the storyline and text of these adventures were minor. By contrast, the differences between the two editions of ''Cigars of the Pharaoh'' were considerable.
Although the overall plot is the same (the scenes on the cruise ship, the tomb, the Red Sea, the Arab army, the Indian jungle, the asylum, the Maharajah, the meeting of the hooded gang leaders, the rescue of the prince and the final scene at the palace), there were many differences between the story as published in black-and-white in the 1930s and the colour edition most commonly available today. This was especially on the handling of the characters, their names and various scenes.
For example, the original 1934 edition puts a lot of focus on the business of smuggling arms to warring Arabs. It appears to have been a major issue at the time. The drugs cartel is involved in this business as well as that of drugs and it is hinted that Tintin is manipulated into helping them deal with their competitors.
The black-and-white edition included three major scenes set in the hide-out below the palace and in the palace itself which are not present in today's book edition: see Deleted Scene 1, Deleted Scene 2 and Deleted Scene 3.

Scene	1934 black-and-white edition	1955 redrawn colour edition
On the cruise ship, Tintin chases a piece of paper, but a sailor thinks that it is he who is causing trouble.	The sailor grabs hold of Tintin who (unseen by the reader) punches him to the ground, giving him a boss-eye in the process.	The sailor and Tintin collide, but there is no indication of further violence.
Still on the cruise ship, Tintin has an unpleasant encounter with Rastapopoulos the millionaire film producer.	Returning to his cabin, Tintin remarks, rather prophetically, that he has yet another enemy on his hands.	Tintin remarks, in the French version, that Rastapopoulos is not just any old passer-by (see Comparing French and English editions for more on this scene).
Tintin meets an eccentric scholar who later goes mad; and a pair of twin detectives.	The scholar is beardless and unnamed; the detectives call themselves X33 and X33b.	The scholar wears a beard and is called Sophocles Sarcophagus; the detectives are called Thomson and Thompson.
Tintin explores the tomb of the Pharaoh and discovers the mummified bodies of other men who found the tomb. There are spare sarcophagi for him and Snowy.	On entering the tomb, Snowy is picked up by a pair of bat's wings and Tintin chases after him. The notices next to the sarcophagi indicate the victim's date of death, going back to 1868, and Tintin and Snowy are due on the 18 January 1933. One of them, Sauerkraut, is so broad-shouldered he has cracked the sides of his sarcophagus. Tintin later has no recollection of events between arriving in Cairo and waking up in the Red Sea and puts the whole experience down as a dream.	Tintin and Snowy simply explore the tomb. The dates on the notices are not shown (though they are on the book cover). (The broad-shouldered Egyptologist is named as E.P. Jacobini who is based on Hergé's fellow artist E.P. Jacobs whose '' is also a classic comic adventure revolving around an Egyptian tomb.) There is a third sarcophagus for Sophocles Sarcophagus.
At night, as they are about to set sail on their ship, the drug smugglers throw the sarcophagi overboard, unaware that they were delivered by mistake and contain bodies intended for mummification.	The unseen captain of the ''City of Doodlecastle'' dismisses the sarcophagi as antiques and orders them thrown over the side. In the morning, Tintin and Snowy break out of their boxes with no recollection of ever being in the tomb.	The captain of the ''Sereno'' is Allan Thompson who believes that the sarcophagi contain drugs. They are thrown overboard when he sees the coast guard launch approaching. Sophocles Sarcophagus emerges from a third such box but is later recaptured by Allan.
Scene	1934 black-and-white edition	1955 redrawn colour edition
Tintin and Snowy are picked up by a sailing ship where they meet salesman Oliveira de Figueira.	De Figueira claims to have left Europe due to the Great Depression and the fact that there is little competition off the coast of Arabia.	His motives for selling so far from home are not specified.
Tintin searches the sailing ship that picked him and Snowy up and discovers an arsenal of guns and ammunition.	A much friendlier Rastapopoulos claims to have been asked by people in high places to look out for smugglers providing arms to warring Arabs. A newspaper article implies that it was a major issue at the time. Tintin and Snowy slip aboard and search the ship while the crew is ashore.	The weapons are found by chance after Snowy has chased the ship's cat down below deck.
Tintin comes to an Arab city where he is forcibly enlisted into the army.	It's the holy city of Mecca which is bared to non-Muslims. Tintin, a European Christian, wears heavy make-up to conceal his white race and adopts an Arabic-like name.	The city is unnamed. Tintin does not bother with make-up, though he still gives an Arab-sounding name.
In an unusual display of cunning and efficiently, the twin detectives save Tintin from death by firing squad.	X33 and X33b announce that they want the reward and glory for the capture of Tintin, accused of smuggling arms and drugs.	The Thompsons state that they are simply following orders concerning Tintin's capture.
Tintin and the mad scholar reach an outpost in the Indian jungle where an evening reception is held.	After examining the patient, the doctor claims that short of a violent emotion there is little chance of him recovering. Mr Snowball is of the India Bank Ltd and the party is also attended by Bearding, a cotton planter, who curiously resembles Captain Haddock.	The doctor is more optimistic and tells Tintin of the nearby asylum. Mr Snowball's job is not specified and Bearding does not feature.
Tintin forces a writer at gunpoint to tell him all he knows about the gang of smugglers and give him the name of the boss, but the man is then driven literally mad by a poisoned dart.	Zlotskwtz [sic.], a Hungarian, admits to being a member of the gang, of sending his boss a telegram telling of Tintin's presence in the area, of being told to dispose of him and of causing the chaotic night at the outpost.	Zlotzky will only state that members of the gang are in the area, that it was they who informed the boss and were ordered to arrange Tintin's murder.
Using deception, the Fakir arranges for Tintin to be held in a lunatic asylum.	The Fakir tells his boss on the phone that he intends to bribe a member of staff to arrange Tintin's "suicide". The walls of the asylum are covered with broken glass. Tintin bounces over the wall using the stomach of the ex-Maharajah of Shuplalah.	The Fakir simply tells the boss how he got Tintin incarcerated. The walls are high, but that appears to be their only deterrent. The identity of the snoring Indian whose peaceful nap is interrupted is not given.
Scene	1934 black-and-white edition	1955 redrawn colour edition
Tintin searches the underground hide-out of the smugglers below the palace.	Tintin enters a room whose doors are activated by foot-panels. A statue of Vishnu emerges from the ground letting loose a herd of cobras. Tintin throws them a chocolate bar and they get entangled with each other. In a darkened passageway Tintin finds a trap-door leading to a pool filled with crocodiles.	Tintin's exploration of the passageway in uneventful.
Tintin, in disguise, attends a meeting of the hooded leaders of the drug smugglers.	There are eight members altogether (later unhooded, the eighth member turns out to be a man wearing a fez). One of them (presumably the Arab colonel) claims to have disposed of the captain of the sailing ship and of "his Portuguese second-in-command" who were competing against them in arming the Arabs. But he also claims that Tintin is dead.	There are only seven hooded people altogether. The fates of Tintin, the captain and the Portuguese are not mentioned.
The chairman of the meeting receives a call informing him that a member has been found unconscious. When asked for the password, a hooded member of the group fails to remember it and is given to the count of three to come up with it or be killed.	The chairman exclaims "By Brahma!", indicating that he is one of the Indians, presumably the Fakir. The other member franticly rakes his brain to remember and give the password.	There are no clues to the chairman's identity and the forgetful member appears more concerned at the chairman's ominous countdown and gun (lending weight to the possibility that it's Tintin).
The Maharajah and the twin detectives arrive and congratulate Tintin on the capture of the gang. At that moment the Fakir escapes.	Escaping, the Fakir announces that he has set explosives which will go off in three minutes. The detectives force the door open with one of their canes, while the Maharajah counts the passing minutes. When they get out it is to find that Snowy has put out the fuse.	One of the Thompsons uses a pass-key and they return to the palace.
Tintin at the palace.	Before going to sleep, Tintin places an upturned table between his bed and the window in order to avoid the Fakir's poisoned darts. The Fakir lets a cobra in through the window. Woken up, Snowy somehow puts on a gramophone record which charms the snake. The music also wakes up Tintin who shoots the reptile with his gun. He is joined by the Maharajah and the detectives and they are then told that the Maharajah's son has been kidnapped. Tintin sets off in pursuit in his pyjamas.	The four men return to the palace to learn of the boy's kidnapping and Tintin sets off in his normal clothes.
The detectives take their leave.	They tell Tintin they must return to Egypt in order to continue the investigation.	They are photographed falling down some steps.
Tintin, in Indian clothes, relaxes on a sofa after the mad scholar and writer are found and taken to the asylum.	Tintin speculates over whether or not the unnamed scholar was a member of the gang and expresses satisfaction that Zlotskwtz, a confirmed member, is now mad. He and Snowy can look forward to some relaxation.	The Maharajah tells Tintin that he has deserved some rest. Tintin appears to doubt that it will last for long (see ''The Blue Lotus'').

Comparing French and English editions

★ In the English version, when parting from Rastapopoulos on the cruise ship, Tintin remarks that this is not the first time that they have met. This may be a reference to a scene in the previous book ''Tintin in America'': someone looking a lot like Rastapopoulos can be seen sitting next to Tintin at the banquet from which the hero is then kidnapped. Next to him is a young blond-haired woman: in the 1932 black-and-white edition of the book this woman is referred to as the actress Mary Pickford, an appropriate companion for a movie mogul.

★ Another theory is that this is an overly literal translation from the French expression used by Tintin to describe the man and which means something more like "He's not just any old passer-by." ^[1].

★ According to Harry Thompson's book ''Tintin: Herge and his creation'', however, the explanation is that ''Cigars of the Pharaoh'' was not translated into English until after some other books in the series in which Tintin encounters Rastapopoulos — namely, ''The Red Sea Sharks'' and ''Flight 714'' — even though in these books the two men are sworn enemies and ''Cigars of the Pharaoh'' was in fact an earlier adventure of Tintin's.

★ In the English version, Snowy makes a comment that he'd prefer Marlinspike Hall to the cruise, despite the fact that the Captain doesn't get the estate for several adventures yet. This is because many of the adventures of Tintin and Haddock had been published in the UK between 1952 and 1968 before ''Cigars'' was published in 1971. (When releasing foreign translated books, publishers seldom bother with the chronological order). See order of publication of Tintin in the UK.

★ For many years, the fifth block on the first page of the English edition contained a map which conflicted with Tintin's description of the journey. He would say that it was a Mediterranean cruise but the map would display Asia as well as southern Europe and north Africa. This was because in the original French version the ship is going all the way from Europe to Shanghai in China.

★ The English version of the album also contained the French spellings for the locations, including "Asie" for the continent and "Singapour" for the city-state. The latest printings have been translated.

Notes

★ In this story Tintin first meets the Thompson twins. This is one of three adventures in which they spend much of their time pursuing Tintin for crimes he did not commit. The way they rescue Tintin from execution and Snowy from sacrifice shows a level of efficiency and cunning that they never displayed in later adventures. When they dress up as Arab women in veils it is the only time they wear effective disguises, fooling even Tintin. In addition, they occasionally speak in unison, something they do not do in later stories (although they do retain their "To be precise..." catchphrase).

★ The name of the fictional Pharaoh Kih-Oskh is a pun on kiosk, a newspaper stand.

★ In the original French version, the mummified scholar who is so tall that the top of his sarcophagus has had to be cut away is Lord Carnaval, a reference to Lord Carnarvon who financed Howard Carter's search for the tomb of Tutankhamun.

★ When Tintin and Snowy are cast adrift in sarcophagi in the Red Sea, they are picked up by a passing sailing ship captained by a man who turns out to be an arms smuggler. The captain was based on the adventurer Henry de Monfreid who was also into such activities.^[2]

★ A few of the weapons on the captain's ship include an MP 40 and a Walther P38. The grenade Snowy drops to avoid one of the police officers looks like a Mk2 grenade.

★ On page 38, Tintin makes a remark about a dagger, which is described to be a Kukri. However, it's clearly a Katar. How Tintin and another character later on holds the weapon by the sides instead of the handle shown beneath the blade is also inaccurate (and probably impossible due to the width).

★ Initial printings of the current edition featured an error on page 52: Snowy was present in panel 9 of the page when Tintin tells the Maharajah his plan to deal with the drug cartel.

★ This is Tintinologists Number1fans most favorite of the Tintin Books.

References

1. ''Tintinologist: Cigars of the Pharao''
2. Michael Farr, ''Tintin: The Complete Companion'', John Murray, 2001.

External links

★ Cigars of the Pharaoh at Tintinologist.org