The “Papan Mera” is of all kinds, from a hovel to a brick house of two stories, for which £3 monthly is paid for rent. Generally speaking, the luxury of the pipe is all that the smoker cares for, and all other things, such as commodious apartments, elegant furniture, and proper ventilation are disregarded. In some houses there are apartments beside those entered from the street. The police regulations ordain that at nine P.M. all shall give up their pipes. But is the sound of the curfew always heeded? “Sooner would the panting traveller, under a burning sun, when hours have elapsed, since his parched lips were moistened, dash from his mouth the goblet before his thirst was half quenched, than the opium-smoker be the slave of time.” If nine o’clock comes, and he has not reached his climax, he then retires to an inner chamber, where, at ease and undisturbed, he may realize that enjoyment, and consummate that bliss, of which the owner of “blue coat and bright buttons” would deprive him. Thus he slips into Paradise whilst the Peri and the “peeler” remain outside disconsolate.
Our Papan Mera man is a good man, and his wife is a good woman, so we get a peep indoors, upstairs, behind the scenes, the apartment where ladies are at home de jure, not being allowed perhaps to smoke at home de facto. Of course, the general visitor has no admittance. In the centre stands a large bed, sitting up thereon a female, her back supported with cushions. She is young, she is fair—yea, passing fair, and dressed in the habiliments of the flowery land. Near her stands a table, on which are tea and sweetmeats. She, too, is a votary to the drug; with dreamy eyes half closed, she draws in the inspiring vapour, then sinks back upon the cushions, unconscious that we are gazing upon her, her dark dishevelled tresses hanging over, but scarce concealing the heaving bosom, the only sign of life.
Although there are supposed to be but forty-five licensed opium shops in Singapore town, there are upwards of eighty; wherever there are Chinese, there may also be found the Papan Mera. Certain trades are congregated together—you have carpenters in one street, blacksmiths in another, gold and silver smiths in a third, and so on. Amongst some trades, the habit of opium-smoking is more common than in others, the principal consumers will be found amongst carpenters, blacksmiths, barbers, huxsters, coolies, boatmen, gambier planters, and gardeners. Full eighty-five per cent. of the persons engaged in these callings are devoted to the drug. Shoemakers, tailors, and bakers, are generally less addicted to the habit; amongst the two first-named, not more than twenty per cent. are smokers. Wherever you have carpenters, blacksmiths, &c., in abundance, there will you have opium shops in abundance also. In many streets there are six of these shops. In one street there are twelve. In Canton Street there are eight houses, and two of them are licensed for opium. At Hong-Kong and at Canton, the same thing occurs. Certain streets are devoted to certain trades, and certain trades devoted to opium.
M. Abbé Huc communicates a few additional facts concerning opium in China. At present this country purchases annually of the English, opium to the amount of seven millions sterling; the traffic is contraband, but it is carried on along the whole coast of the Empire, and especially in the neighbourhood of the five ports which have been opened to Europeans. Large fine vessels, armed like ships of war, serve as depots to the English merchants, and the trade is protected, not only by the English Government, but also by the mandarins of the Chinese Empire. The law which forbids the smoking of opium under pain of death, has, indeed, never been repealed; but everybody smokes away quite at his ease notwithstanding. Pipes, lamps, and all the apparatus are sold publicly in every town, and the mandarins themselves are the first to violate the law, and give this bad example to the people, even in the courts of justice. During the whole of the Abbé’s long journey through China, he met with but one tribunal where opium was not smoked openly and with impunity.
The Chinese prepare and smoke their opium lying down, sometimes on one side, sometimes on the other, saying that this is the most favourable position; and the smokers of distinction do not give themselves all the trouble of the operation, but have their pipes prepared for them.
For several years past some of the southern provinces have been actively engaged in the cultivation of the poppy, and the fabrication of opium. The English merchants confess that the Chinese product is of excellent quality, though inferior to that of Bengal; but the English opium suffers so much adulteration before it reaches the pipe of the smoker, that it is not in reality so good as what the Chinese themselves prepare. The latter, however, though delivered perfectly pure, is sold at a low price, and only consumed by smokers of the lowest class. That of the English, notwithstanding its adulteration, thus writes Abbé Huc dear and reserved to smokers of distinction; a caprice which can only be accounted for from the vanity of the rich Chinese, who would think it beneath them to smoke opium of native production, and not of a ruinous price; that which comes from a long way off must evidently be preferable. It is very probable that the Chinese will soon cultivate the poppy on a large scale, and make at home all the opium necessary for their consumption. It is certain that the English cannot offer an equally good article at the same price; and, should the fashion alter, British India will suffer a great reverse in her Chinese opium trade. The Abbé makes reference to the increased consumption of opium in England, both in the liquid and solid form, the progress of which he characterises as alarming, and then concludes the subject with the following extraordinary paragraph:—“Curious and instructive would it be, indeed, if we should one day see the English going to buy opium in the ports of China, and their ships bringing back from the Celestial Empire this deleterious stuff, to poison England. Well might we exclaim in such a case, ‘Leave judgment to God.’”
[CHAPTER XII.]
PANDEMONIUM.
“Sights of woe,
Regions of sorrow, doleful shades, where peace