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Brahmins, máhajuns and bunias have their smoke at their own houses, generally every
day in the afternoon.
There are about 14 shops I understand in the city at which you may procure cannabis
in varions forms.
Bhang is a very cheap common form of Indian hemp, which is not smoked but drank
and is prepared in the following manner:—The leaves and stalks of the cannabis sativa, which
is a jungle or low shrub growing everywhere in India, especially in the lower ranges of the
Himalayas, are ground very fine by means of either a rolling pin and stone slab or of a
pestle and mortar, the pestle having a long handle. Water is added little by little until a
fine smooth green liquid paste is made, which is then strained through a cloth. From half
a drachm to two drachms are mixed with milk and sugar, and the whole is swallowed.
Very poor people who cannot afford milk and sugar drink it with merely the addition of a
little black pepper.
One masha is said to be a harmless quantity, and six mashas will produce intoxication.
The general effect of this form is to produce quiet pleasant delirium and stupor rather than
excitement attended with violence, which the next form of Indian hemp is apt to create.
Churrus is the dried sticky resinous exudation from all parts of the cannabis sativa,
especially the pith inside the stalk.
The best kind comes from Samarkund, Bokhára and Cábul, from the Ladákh Hills. It is
greenish-black in color, resembles the extract of henbane when moist, and scammony when
dry and hard. It is bitter in taste, and is smoked with or without tobacco. Half a drachm
affords a cheerful smoke for two or three men, and costs about 2 pie. It is smoked in a chil-
lum or hookah on red hot charcoal, after having been finely mulled by the hand. It is said
you may detect the old churrus-smoker by a hard corn-like thickening of the ball of the right
thumb from the constant habit of rubbing up the churrus.
Upla or cowdung fire is very much preferred, and may be considered the correct thing.
The pill or bolus of churrus is placed on the red hot upla and the pipe put into the mouth.
Then by a strong pull and a long pull a blaze is created in the chillum, the smoke is exhaled
by a prolonged expiration, and the clever smoker puffing out an immense column of smoke.
Even one whiff will sometimes make the eyes red and stimulate the nerves to an extent almost
inconceivable. The chillum is handed rapidly round from one person to another, any delay
spoiling the charming effect. In cold weather, in the rains, or at marriage festival, resort is
made to the artificial stimulants.
Four whiffs are a moderate smoke as a rule; six mashas cause intoxication; nine mashas
will kill.
Gánja is another different form from the last, but is smoked in the same way. It is the
dried flower-head of cannabis, and is not to be got in the Dehli District, I believe. There are
quantities consumed in Calcutta and Lucknow. It is an equally pernicious narcotic, is rubbed
fine by the hand, and smoked in a chillum by a prolonged inspiration and slow expiration.
The last preparation of cannabis is májoom, which is a dirty green sweetmeat in the
form of taffee, sold at an anna per ounce. It is made with the ground leaves of the plant
mixed with milk, butter, sugar and atta, and then baked. About one drachm is eaten at a time.
This is the preparation often used by thugs and professional thieves for purposes of
poisoning.
Each and all of these forms of Indian hemp act upon the nervous system, exercising a
peculiar influence over the brain and spinal cord and the nerves connected with them, and
also paralysing the sympathetic nervous system, as shown in the arrest of the secretion
of the salivary glands and the liver. Their action is chiefly on the mental faculties, and,
if long continued, they will produce chronic disorder of the mind. Their first effect is
that of a stimulant, exalting or exciting the mind; for we find an indescribable sense
of happiness, a tendency to laughter, great strength : sometimes the churrus-smoker will
feel as though he were rising through the air and descending again, or an irresistible propen-
sity to dance or jump. Both after drinking bhung or smoking churrus or gánja there is a
burning feeling and dryness of the throat. Sometimes there is oppression of the breathing.
Catalepsy is said to be an effect. There is no doubt of the appatizing influence all forms of
cannabis have, and if milk, ghee, and lots of nourishment be taken, much of the injurious
action is prevented.
After the stage of excitement the mind becomes confused, attention is arrested, the man
stupid, and at last complete intoxication, in fact, it is the stage of depression. Old bhung-
drinkers, churrus and gánja-smokers and májoom-eaters are, as a rule, emaciated ; they lose
vital energy, become impotent, forgetful, or are weak-minded and melancholy.
Others, again, especially churrus-smokers, are exceedingly irascible, and occasionally
violent, abusive, or maniacal.
Again, churrus-smokers are often asthmatic. I can remember several instances. They
become so from an emphysematous state of their lungs; are like broken-winded horses ; they
have ruptured the fine air-cells from long-continued and oft-repeated inspiration and expira-
tion. Hæmoptysis is not uncommon amongst them.