CHAPTER XVII
HASHISH AND HASHISH EATERS
Hashish, or Bhang, is the native term 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 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 working in the palm of the other, till they are thoroughly incorporated. 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 antiquity of the drug is great, and it 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 Mahomedans 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.