“No, no, my friend,” said Verstork, “I am glad we did not. Almost all the recesses were occupied, and the scenes which they would have revealed would have differed only from those you saw in the degree of beastliness. I repeat it—it is much better that we did not go on. But, when I tell you that in the dessa Kaligaweh there are some eighty households which number about six hundred souls, one hundred and thirty of which are able-bodied working men, and that such a den as we visited remains open for three-quarters of the four-and-twenty hours—And when I further tell you that if you had looked into the wretched huts all around you would have found many an opium-smoker in them also—then, I think you will be able to form some idea of the extent which the abuse of opium has attained.”
“Do you happen to know,” asked Grashuis, who was fond of statistics, “what percentage of the inhabitants is given to this abuse of opium?”
“Well,” returned the other, “I do not think we shall do much good by troubling ourselves about figures which are generally misleading and only serve to prove how clever statisticians are in the art de grouper les chiffres.”
“Yes,” said Grenits, “and we know full well that treasury officials have very little scruples on such points.”
“It is a blessing that Muizenkop does not hear you say that,” said van Rheijn, with a laugh, “you would see him fire up at such a suggestion.”
“With regard to Kaligaweh,” continued Verstork, “I venture most confidently to assert that there are not ten men in the dessa who are free from the vice of opium smoking.”
“Humph,” muttered van Beneden, who, though a lawyer, was also fond of figures, “that is about 93 per cent.”
“I found that out,” continued the controller, “when, about a twelvemonth ago I was on the look-out for a man to put into the place of my former loerah; a good fellow enough, but one whom the opium-pipe had rendered totally unfit for any position of trust.”
“Did you succeed?” asked Grenits.
“Yes, I did; but not without much difficulty. It was my intention to appoint Setrosmito, the poor devil who just now has got himself into trouble, and it was only because the man could neither read nor write that I had to give up the idea. The inquiries, however, which I then was forced to make, revealed to me the startling fact that women, and even children of eight or nine years of age use opium. They actually scrape out the father’s pipe in order to get hold of the fatal narcotic.”