While we discussed the topics of the day, his sons—two sturdy, pot-bellied brats, aged respectively five and seven, naked as they were born—would squat down on the floor of beaten clay and stare open-mouthed at me.
His meal despatched, the little sergeant would stretch himself out on a clean rice straw mat placed on a platform-like bed made of split bamboo which covered half the room. His wife would then bring in a hardwood tray, whereon was a diminutive lamp, a bamboo opium pipe with a blue clay bowl, some little skewer-like implements of silver, and a tiny box of the same metal containing the daily ration of this seductive drug.
Tho would lie on his right side, a hollow block of green-enamelled earthenware, serving as a pillow, beneath his head. His wife would stretch out opposite to and facing him. Between them was placed the tray with its little implements, and the lamp was lit.
This was the solemn moment of the day.
Tho reached out his skinny little brown hand and picked up his pipe, fondling it an instant prior to warming the bowl in the flames, his keen black eyes glancing over his favourite with the fond look of satisfaction and gratitude one sees on the face of a man who greets a well-beloved wife.
This pipe, if such it can be called (for neither in bowl nor stem did it resemble the instrument we give that name to), was of similar form to that used by all Orientals who inhale opium fumes. It consisted of a stem, about 2 feet long, of polished bamboo, about 1½ inches in diameter, the lower end being closed by an ivory cap, while the other extremity was covered by a disc of silver with a small round hole in the centre of it. To this the lips were placed when the fumes were inhaled.
About 6 inches from the lower end of the stem the bamboo was pierced to receive the neck of the bowl, shaped like a hollow, flat bulb. The top had a diameter of about 3 inches, and was well polished and slightly convex. In the middle was a tiny hole about as big as a pin's head.
It is, perhaps, as well to explain that no opium gets into the bowl, for it is consumed over the hole in the smooth convex surface on the top, owing to the air in the bulb having been inhaled and the consequent creation of a temporary vacuum. Thus only the fumes pass through the little orifice, up the stem and into the lungs of the smoker.
Now Tho was warming his pipe over the flame of the lamp, withdrawing it now and again to gently polish the surface of the bulb upon the sleeve of his khaki jacket. His better-half dipped one of the little silver skewers into the tiny pot, and after turning it round drew it out covered with a coating of the rich brown drug, which looked like thick treacle.
This she held over the flame for a second. It frizzled and gained in consistency; she withdrew it, and dipped it again into the drug, and it increased in volume. Three or four times this operation was repeated, until there was sufficient opium on the skewer to make a good pipe.