HASHISH AND HASHISH-EATERS
Hashish, or Bhang, is the native name applied to the dried flowering
tops of the Indian hemp, from which the resin has not been removed.
This plant, cultivated largely in India, is now considered to be the
same, botanically, as the _Cannabis sativa_ of European cultivation; but
there is great difference in their medicinal activity, that growing in
India being much more powerful. Ganja is the native name for one part of
the plant, and Sidhi for another part, which is much poorer in resin.
The resinous principle is called _churrus_ or _charas_, and the entire
plant, cut during inflorescence, dried in the sun and pressed into
bundles, is called _bhang_.
The method of using it in India is chiefly for smoking in combination
with tobacco. For this purpose, a plug of tobacco is first placed at the
bottom of the bowl of the pipe, on the top a small piece of hashish, and
over this a piece of glowing charcoal. Another way is to knead the drug
with the tobacco by the thumb of one hand and working it in the palm of
the other, till they are thoroughly incorporated.
In India both ganja and churrus are used for smoking, but not bhang or
sidhi. In India the habit of smoking ganja becomes part of a man’s life.
Under ordinary circumstances he has his smoke daily when his day’s
labour is over, and during the interval when he cooks his evening meal.
Under extraordinary circumstances he takes it to sustain him in the
midst of severe or prolonged exertion. It does not (as in opium smoking)
affect his appetite, but enables the poorest to partake with a heartier
appetite of their somewhat uninviting fare. It does not affect the
digestion or interfere in the slightest degree with bodily or mental
health, and the habit does not grow on the votary. Ganja-smoking appears
to be only injurious when indulged in to excess by those who lead
sedentary lives.
Simple infusions of the leaves and flowering tops are also much used for
drinking purposes by old and young in India, the alcoholic form being a
most active and dangerous intoxicant.
The drug is said to have been used in China as early as the year 220, to
produce insensibility when performing operations. The Persians employed
it in the Middle Ages for the purpose of exciting the pugnacity and
fanaticism of the soldiers during the wars of the Crusades.
In 1803 Visey, a French scientist, published a memoir on hashish, and
attempted to prove that it was the nepenthe of Homer; there is little
doubt, however, that the use of the drug was known to Galen.
Silvestin de Lacy contends that the word assassin is derived from
“hashishin,” a name given to a wild sect of Mohammedans who committed
murder under its influence.
The Chinese herbal, _Rh-ya_, which dates from about the fifth century
B.C., notices the fact that the hemp plant is of two kinds, the one
producing seeds and the other flowers only. Herodotus states that hemp
grows in Scythia both wild and cultivated, and that the Thracians made
garments from it which can hardly be distinguished from linen. He also
describes “how the Scythians exposed themselves as in a bath” to the
vapour of the seeds thrown on hot coals.
The hemp occurs in several forms and is known under various names. Bhang
consists of the entire plant dried and mixed with a few fruits and is of
a dark green colour. It has a peculiar odour but little taste. Mixed
with flour or incorporated with sweetmeat it is called hashish. It is
also smoked or taken infused in cold water. Ganja consists exclusively
of the flowering shoots of the female plant, having a compound or
glutinous appearance, and is brownish-green in colour. Majún is a term
applied to a sweetmeat or confection, of which Indian hemp is the basis,
but it may contain nux vomica, opium, cantharides, or frequently datura
seeds, according to the purpose for which it is intended, whether as an
aphrodisiac or a criminal excitant or deliriant.
Of the many curious experiences that have been written describing the
effects of hashish, perhaps the most accurate is that given by Gautier,
in which he relates his own experience of the drug.
“The Orientalists,” he states, “have, in consequence of the interdiction
of wine, sought that species of excitement which the Western nations
derive from alcoholic drinks.” He then proceeds to state how a few
minutes after swallowing some of the preparation, a sudden overwhelming
sensation took possession of him. It appeared to him that his body was
dissolved, and that he had become transparent. He clearly saw in his
stomach the hashish he had swallowed, under the form of an emerald, from
which a thousand little sparks issued. His eyelashes were lengthened
indefinitely, and rolled like threads of gold around ivory balls, which
turned with inconceivable rapidity. Around him were sparklings of
precious stones of all colours, changes eternally produced, like the
play of a kaleidoscope. He every now and then saw his friends who were
around him disfigured as half men, half plants, some having the wings of
the ostrich, which they were constantly shaking. So strange were these
that he burst into fits of laughter, and, to join in the apparent
ridiculousness of the affair, he began by throwing the cushions in the
air, catching and turning them with the rapidity of an Indian juggler.
One gentleman spoke to him in Italian, which the hashish transposed into
Spanish. After a few minutes he recovered his habitual calmness, without
any bad effect, and only with feelings of astonishment at what had
passed. Half an hour had scarcely elapsed before he again fell under the
influence of the drug. On this occasion the vision was more complicated
and extraordinary. In the air there were millions of butterflies,
confusedly luminous, shaking their wings like fans. Gigantic flowers,
with chalices of crystal; large peonies upon beds of gold and silver
rose and surrounded him with the crackling sound that accompanies the
explosion in the air of fireworks. His hearing had acquired new power;
it was enormously developed. He heard the noise of colours. Green, red,
blue, yellow sounds reached him in waves—a glass thrown down, the
creaking of a sofa, a word pronounced low, vibrated and rolled within
him like peals of thunder. His own voice sounded so loud that he feared
to speak lest he should knock down the walls or explode like a rocket.
More than five hundred clocks struck the hour with fleeting silvery
voice, and every object touched gave a note like the harmonica or the
Æolian harp. He swam in an ocean of sound, where floated like aisles of
light some of the airs of “Lucia di Lammermoor” and the “Barber of
Seville.” Never did similar bliss overwhelm him with its waves; he was
lost in a wilderness of sweets; he was not himself; he was relieved from
consciousness, that feeling which always pervades the mind; and for the
first time he comprehended what might be the state of elementary beings,
of angels, of souls separated from the body. All his system seemed
infected with the fantastic colouring in which he was plunged. Sounds,
perfume, light, reached him only by minute rays, in the midst of which
he heard mystic currents whistling along. According to his calculation,
this state lasted about three hundred years, for the sensations were so
numerous and so hurried one upon the other, that a real appreciation of
time was impossible. The paroxysm over, he was aware that it had only
lasted a _quarter of an hour_.
Another interesting account of the strange hallucinations produced by
the drug is related by Dr. Moreau, who, with two friends, experimented
with hashish.
“At first,” he states “I thought my companions were less influenced by
the drug than myself. Then, as the effect, I fancied that the person who
brought me the dose had given me some of more active quality. This, I
thought to myself, was an imprudence and the involuntary idea presented
itself that I might be poisoned. The idea became fixed; I called out
loudly to Dr. Roche, ‘You are an assassin; you have poisoned me!’ This
was received with shouts of laughter, and my lamentations excited mirth.
I struggled for some time against the thought, but the greater the
effort the more completely did it overcome me, till at last it took full
possession of my mind. The extravagant conviction now came uppermost
that I was dead, and upon the point of being buried; my soul had left my
body. In a few minutes I had gone through all the stages of delirium.”
These fixed ideas and erroneous convictions are apt to be produced, but
they only last a few seconds, unless there is any physical disorder.
“The Orientalist, when he indulges in hashish retires into the depth of
his harem; no one is then admitted who cannot contribute to his
enjoyment. He surrounds himself with his dancing girls, who perform
their graceful evolutions before him to the sound of music; gradually a
new condition of the brain allows a series of illusions, arising from
the external senses, to present themselves. The mind becomes overpowered
by the brilliancy of gorgeous visions; discrimination, comparison,
reason, yield up their throne to dreams and phantoms which exhilarate
and delight.
“The mind tries to understand what is the cause of the new delight, but
it is in vain. It seems to know there is no reality.”
Hardly two people experience the same results from hashish. Upon some it
has little effect, while upon others, especially women, it exerts
extraordinary power. While one person says he imagined his body endowed
with such elasticity that he fancied he could enter into a bottle and
remain there at his ease, another fancied he had become the piston of a
steam engine; under the influence of the drug the ear lends itself more
to the illusion than any other sense. Its first effect is one of intense
exhilaration, almost amounting to delirium; power of thought is soon
lost, and the victim laughs, cries and sings or dances, all the time
imagining he is acting rationally. The second stage is one of dreamy
enjoyment followed by a dead stupor.
Of the ordinary physical effects of hashish, the first is a feeling of
slight compression of the temporal bones and upper parts of the head.
The respiration is gentle, the pulse is increased, and a gentle heat is
felt all over the surface of the body. There is a sense of weight about
the fore part of the arms, and an occasional slight involuntary motion,
as if to seek relief from it. There is a feeling of discomfort about the
extremities, creating a feeling of uneasiness, and if the dose has been
too large the usual symptoms of poisoning by Indian hemp show
themselves. Flushes of heat seem to ascend to the head, even to the
brain, which create considerable alarm. Singing in the ears is
complained of; then comes on a state of anxiety, almost of anguish, with
a sense of constriction about the chest. The individual fancies he hears
the beating of his heart with unaccustomed loudness; but throughout the
whole period it is the nervous system that is affected, and in this way
the drug differs materially from opium, whose action on the muscular and
digestive systems is most marked.
It is a remarkable fact that Indian hemp fails to produce the same
intoxicating effects in this country that it does in warmer climates,
and whether this is due to the loss of some volatile principle or
difference in temperature it is not yet determined. But would-be
experimentalists in the effects of hashish would do well to remember
that it may not be indulged in with impunity, and most authorities agree
that the brain becomes eventually disordered with frequent indulgence in
the drug even in India. It further becomes weakened and incapable of
separating the true from the false; frequent intoxication leads to a
condition of delirium, and usually of a dangerous nature; the moral
nature becomes numbed, and the victim at last becomes unfit to pursue
his ordinary avocation. It is stated by those who have had considerable
experience in its use, that even during the dream of joy there is a
consciousness that all is illusion; there is at no period a belief that
anything that dances before the senses or plays upon the imagination is
real, and that when the mind recovers its equilibrium it knows that all
is but a phantasm.