A carrion crow was once indulging in a feast upon the carcase of a nice fat rat which had just been caught in a neighbouring barn and thrown out into the road. A wood pigeon, who had finished his meal in a field of peas hard by, came past at the time and saw his friend the crow in full enjoyment of his rat. “I cannot imagine,” said the pigeon, “how you can eat such a disgusting creature as that on which you are making your breakfast—the sight of it turns my stomach.” “It is quite a matter of taste,” said the crow, “and I think that I have the advantage, my food is juicy and sweet, this rat has lived upon the best of the farmer’s corn, and the farmer would enjoy the treat himself, I am confident, if he only knew what a delicious breakfast it would make. You should be welcome to an acre of peas every day, if you would bring me such a dish as this. Besides, if I did not eat it, it would soon putrefy, and fill the air with disgusting smells, so that I am, in myself, a perfect board of health, working for the good of society, you, no better than a vagabond, stealing from society your daily bread.” “I have heard it said,” added the pigeon, “that it was you and your companions that destroyed a whole field of turnips in grubbing after the worms—I suppose that was a benefit to society.” “Go and eat your peas,” said the crow, “and leave me to enjoy my rat in peace.”
Calculations as to the number of persons indulging in the use of opium are necessarily liable to objections; one person asserting that in China, for instance, not less than twenty millions of people indulge in opium, whilst others consider that two millions and a half are all that can be calculated upon. The number which Johnston estimates as the proportion of the human race using opium is four hundred millions, or about half the number of those who indulge in tobacco. This is, perhaps, as near an approximation as can be made, but one which must be based on the quantity produced, deducing therefrom the number required to consume it, rather than on any details of consumption, which cannot be arrived at.
There is one important and well-authenticated fact with regard to the Chinese consumption of opium, that in the year 1854, the value of opium imported into China exceeded the value of all the tea and silk exported from China to Great Britain and her colonies.
As we take farewell of the “gift of God” to pass through the portals of Paradise, let us do so in the words of that most celebrated of English opium eaters, Thomas de Quincey:——“O just, subtle, and all-conquering opium! that, to the hearts of rich and poor alike, for the wounds that will never heal, and for the pangs of grief that ‘tempt the spirit to rebel,’ bringest an assuaging balm; eloquent opium! that with thy potent rhetoric stealest away the purposes of wrath, pleadest effectually for relenting pity, and through one night’s heavenly sleep, callest back to the guilty man the visions of his infancy, and hands washed pure from blood. O just and righteous opium! that to the chancery of dreams, summonest for the triumphs of despairing innocence, false witnesses, and confoundest perjury, and dost reverse the sentences of unrighteous judges; thou buildest upon the bosom of darkness, out of the fantastic imagery of the brain, cities and temples, beyond the art of Phidias and Praxiteles—beyond the splendours of Babylon and Hekatompylos; and from the ‘anarchy of dreaming sleep,’ callest into sunny light the faces of long-buried beauties, and the blessed household countenances, cleansed from the ‘dishonours of the grave.’ Thou only givest these gifts to man, and thou hast the keys of Paradise, O just, subtle, and mighty opium!”
[CHAPTER X.]
THE GATES OF PARADISE.
“Thou only givest these gifts to man; and thou hast the keys of Paradise, O just, subtle, and mighty opium.”——Confessions of an Opium-Eater.
According to the common opinion of the Arabs, there are seven heavens, one above another. The upper surface of each is believed to be nearly plane, and generally supposed to be circular, five hundred years’ journey in width. The first is described to be formed of emerald; the second of white silver; the third of large white pearls; the fourth of ruby; the fifth of red gold; the sixth of yellow jacinth; and the seventh of shining light. Some assert Paradise to be in the seventh heaven; others state that above the seventh heaven are seven seas of light, then an undefined number of veils, or separations, of different substances, seven of each kind, and then Paradise, which consists of seven stages, one above another. The first is the mansion of glory, of white pearls; the second, the mansion of peace, of ruby; the third, the garden of rest, of green chrysolite; the fourth, the garden of eternity, of green coral; the fifth, garden of delight, of white silver; the sixth, the garden of Paradise, of red gold; the seventh, the garden of perpetual abode or Eden, of large pearls—this overlooking all the former, and canopied by the throne of the Compassionate.
The most direct road and speediest conveyance to Paradise, according to the testimony of all confirmed opiophagi, is by means of that subtle drug, opium. The most common form in which it is taken is that of vapour, inhaled through a peculiarly-constructed pipe. Those used by the Siamese resemble in form the common narghilè, or hubble-bubble of the Levant. They consist of an empty cocoa-nut shell, in an orifice in the top of which a hollow wooden tube is inserted, and the opening hermetically closed, so as to prevent the escape of either air or smoke. In another hole in the side of the cocoa-nut shell, a common little bamboo tube, about eighteen inches long, is tightly fixed; a little earthen bowl, perforated at the bottom like a sieve, is filled with opium, and one or two pieces of fire being placed thereon, this bowl is fitted on the top of the wooden tube. The man who hands round this pipe holds with one hand the bottom of the cocoa-nut (which is half full of water), and with the other hand he presents the bamboo tube to the smoker, who, putting it to his mouth, inhales three or four whiffs of this most intoxicating narcotic. The effect is almost instantaneous. He sinks gently against the cushion set at his back, and becomes insensible to what is passing around. The pipe is passed round from mouth to mouth, so that half an hour generally intervenes between the first whiff taken by the first smoker, and the last sigh heaved by the last man, as he revives from his short, pleasant dream, into which the whiffing has thrown him. One old and inveterate Siamese smoker declared to a recent resident among them, that if he knew his life would be forfeited by the act, he could no more resist the temptation than he could curb a fiery steed by a thread bridle. It carried him into the seventh heaven—he heard and saw things no tongue could utter, and felt as though his soul soared so high above things earthly, during those precious moments of oblivion, as to have flown beyond the reach of its heavy, burthensome cage.
Opium smoking is not generally conducted on a plan so social. The Siamese may be considered as an exception to the general rule. The method pursued at Hong-Kong, of which we have received an account from a competent authority, is more a type of the opium-smoker in general, and the method he pursues.