“And there he hung till he was dead
As any nail in town;
For though distress had cut him up,
It could not cut him down.”
Hemp is one of those plants which adapts itself well to any climate: there is scarce a country in Europe where it cannot, or might not, be cultivated. From Poland and Russia in the North, to Italy in the South, the fibre is supplied to our markets. In North America it is grown for its fibre, and in South America for its narcotic properties. Throughout Africa, it may be found chiefly as an article for the pipe. In most of Asia it is known, and it has been cultivated in Australia. Thus, in its distribution, it may now be considered as almost universal.
Twenty-five centuries ago, Herodotus wrote of its cultivation by the Scythians:——“They have a sort of hemp growing in this country very like flax, except in thickness and height; in this respect the hemp is far superior—it grows both spontaneously and from cultivation, and from it the Thracians make garments very like linen, nor would any one who is not well skilled in such matters distinguish whether they are made of flax or hemp; but a person who has never seen this hemp, would think the garment was made of flax.” Then follows a description of the use of the hemp as a narcotic: “The Scythians, transported with the vapour, shout aloud.” Antiquity is in favour of this narcotic, and its use for that purpose before any other, except perhaps the poppy, was known, or at least of those now in use. The nepenthes of Homer has been supposed to have been this plant, or one of its products. The use of hemp had become so general amongst the Romans at the time of Pliny, that they commonly made ropes and cordage of it. The practice of chewing the leaves to produce intoxication existed in India in very early ages, whence it was carried to Persia, and before the middle of the thirteenth century, this custom was adopted in Egypt, but chiefly by persons of the lower orders.
The narcotic properties of hemp become concentrated in a resinous juice, which in certain seasons and in tropical countries exudes, and concretes on the leaves, slender stems, and flowers. This constitutes the base of all the hemp preparations, to which all the powers of the drug are attributable. In Central India, the hemp resin called churrus, is collected during the hot season in the following manner. Men clad in leathern dresses run through the hemp fields, brushing through the plants with all possible violence; the soft resin adheres to the leather, and is subsequently scraped off and kneaded into balls, which sell at from five to six rupees the seer, or about five or six shillings per pound. A still finer kind, the momeca or waxen churrus, is collected by the hand in Nepaul, and sells for nearly double the price of the ordinary kind. Dr. McKinnon says—“In Nepaul, the leathern attire is dispensed with, and the resin is collected on the skin of naked coolies.” In Persia the churrus is obtained by pressing the resinous plant on coarse cloths, and then scraping it from these and melting it in a pot with a little warm water. Mirza considers the churrus of Herat the most powerful of all the varieties of the drug. The hemp resin, when pure, is of a blackish grey colour, with a fragrant narcotic odour, and a slightly warm, bitterish, acrid taste.
The dried hemp plant which has flowered, and from which the resin has been removed, is called in India gunjeh. It sells at from twelve annas to a rupee the seer, or from ninepence to a shilling per pound, in the Calcutta bazaars. It is sold chiefly for smoking, in bundles two feet long and three inches in diameter, containing twenty-four plants. The colour is dusky green, the odour agreeably narcotic, the whole plant resinous and adhesive to the touch.
The larger leaves and capsules without the stalks, are called Bang, Subjee, or Sidhee in India, and have been brought into the London market under the name of Guaza. They are used for making an intoxicating drink, for smoking, and in the conserve called Majoon. Bang is cheaper than Gunjeh, and though less powerful, is sold at so low a price that for one halfpenny enough can be purchased to intoxicate an habituated person.
The Gunjeh consumed in Bengal comes chiefly from Mirzapore and Ghazeepur, being extensively cultivated near Gwalior and in Tirhoot. The natives cut the plant when in flower, allow it to dry for three days, and then lay it in bundles averaging two pounds each which are distributed to the licensed dealers. The best kinds are brought from Gwalior and Bhurtpore, and it is cultivated of good quality in gardens around Calcutta.