The pipe which is used for smoking opium is not in the least like that which is employed for tobacco. The stem is about as large as an ordinary office-ruler, and it has a hole near one end, into which the shank of the bowl is fixed. The bowl itself is about as large as a Ribstone pippin, and nearly of the same shape, the bud representing the tiny aperture in which the opium is placed, and the stalk representing the shank which fits into the stem. These pipes are made of various materials, some being mere bamboo and wood, while others have bowls of the finest porcelain, and the stem richly enamelled. My own specimen has the stem twenty inches in length, and an inch and a half in diameter, the bore not being large enough to admit an ordinary crowquill. The bowl is of some light-colored wood, well varnished, and covered with landscape scenes in black lines. Although it has not been in use for many years, it still smells strongly of opium, showing that it had been saturated with the fumes of the drug before it came into my possession.
The mode of using it is as follows: The smoker has a couch prepared, together with a little lamp, and his usual supply of the prepared opium. He lays his head on the pillow, with a long, needle-like implement places over the aperture of the bowl a little piece of the opium, about as large as a mustard seed, holds it to the flame of the lamp, and, with a long and steady inspiration, the whole of the opium is drawn into the lungs in the state of vapor. The smoke is retained for a few seconds, and then expelled. The generality of opium smokers are content with one pipe, but the votary of the drug will sometimes take as many as twelve in succession before he is completely under the influence of the opium. As he finishes the last morsel of opium, the pipe falls from his hand, and he passes into that dreamland for which he has bartered everything that makes life precious.
The terrible scenes which have so often been related take place for the most part at the opium shops, places which are nominally illegal, but which carry on their trade by payment of periodical bribes to the ruling official of the place. In Tien-tsin alone there were upwards of three hundred of these shops, in which opium could be purchased or sold wholesale, or could be refined for smoking, and consumed on the premises.
There is only one redeeming point in opium smoking, namely, that it does not produce the brutal scenes which too often take place in the gin palaces of this country. Mr. Fleming remarks of this vice: “If opium smoking is a great evil among the Chinese people, as it is no doubt, yet they endeavor to hide it, they are ashamed of it, and it offends neither the eyes nor the hearing by offensive publicity. It is not made a parade of by night and by day, neither does it give rise to mad revels and murderous riots. Its effects on the health may be more prejudicial than our habits of alcohol drinking, but yet it is hard to see any of those broken-down creatures that one reads about.”
Indeed, the Chinese themselves, who are apt to drink more than they ought of a fiery liquid called samshu, say that the spirit is far more injurious than the drug.
We will now see how the Chinese smoke tobacco. The pipe which is ordinarily used has a very little bowl of brass, at the end of a slight stem about as large as a drawing pencil. The bowl is scarcely large enough to hold the half of a boy’s playing marble, and is almost exactly like the Japanese pipe, which will be presently described.
A pipe that is very much in fashion, especially with the women, is a kind of water-pipe made of brass, and enlarged at the bottom so as to stand upright. The enlarged portion is filled with water, through which the smoke passes, as in a hookah. The little brass tube which serves the purpose of a bowl can be drawn out of the body of the pipe, so as to be charged afresh; and in most cases each pipe is supplied with several bowls, so that they can be used successively as wanted. Only three whiffs are taken at a time; and indeed the quantity of tobacco used is so small, that more would be almost out of the question. For this pipe, tobacco is prepared in a peculiar manner, a minute quantity of arsenic being mixed with it.
One peculiarity about the Chinese is their almost universal employment of weight as a measure. With the exception of objects of art, nearly everything is bought by weight, and the consequence is, that the most absurd modes of increasing the weight are often employed. Fowls and ducks, for example, are sold alive by weight, so that the dishonest vendor has a habit of cramming with stones before he brings them to market. Fish are also taken to market while still living, and are improved in appearance by being blown up with bellows, and in weight by being crammed with stones. Through the lips of each fish a ring is passed, so that it may be at once taken from the water and hung upon the hook of the balance. Nor is the fish dealer particular as to the sufferings of the creatures which he sells, and he has not the least hesitation in cutting off a pound or two in case his customer does not wish to purchase an entire fish.
In these transactions the Chinese do not use scales, but employ a “steelyard” balance, made of various materials and various sizes, according to the object for which it was intended. That which is meant for ordinary market use is made of wood, and is marked at regular distances by small brass studs, so as to designate the exact places on which the weight should be hung. Those which are intended for finer work are of ivory.
It is kept in a case, which looks something like two wooden spoons laid upon each other, so that their bowls enclose any object placed between them. They are united by a rivet or pivot, which passes through the ends of the handles, enabling them to be separated at will by drawing them sideways. In order to prevent them from coming apart needlessly, a ring of bamboo is plaited loosely round the stem, so that when it is slipped toward the bowl, the two halves of the case are kept together, and when it is slid to the end of the stem, they can be separated. In one of the halves of the bowl a large hole is scooped, in which the pan of the balance lies, and a smaller hole is cut for the reception of the weight. The steelyard itself lies in a groove cut along the inside of the stem. The reader will see that when the apparatus is closed, it lies very compactly, and can be stuck into the girdle ready for use at any moment.