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5 years of age. My opinion that excessive smokers
do not have children is based on hearsay.
53. The answer is based only upon hearsay,
not personal experience.
65. I understand the present tax is very small;
but I don't know exactly what it is. The tax is
not high enough.
68. By manufacturers, I mean anybody and
everybody who chooses to grow the plant.
In my note comparing ganja and opium, I refer
to the eating of opium and not the smoking of it.
I do not know anything about the smoking of
opium. My remark about the harmlessness of
opium smoking is not based on experience I know
some opium eaters, and they are not so mischievous
as ganja smokers. The ganja smokers 1 have des-
cribed are idlers, it is true; but they are mischievous
also, in that people are afraid to pass them at
night. Idlers of any sort might be offensive ;
but the idleness of these men results from their
habit of ganja smoking.
147. Evidence of the REV. W. ROBINSON, Missionary, London Missionary Sobriety,
Salem.
1. I have seen ganja smokers at intervals in
the last 16 years.
3. In Salem, on the Yelagiri hills, and the
Javadis. These hills are in the Tripatore Taluka,
and this ganja is considered the best. I have
seen the plant growing wild in many parts of the
district. It is abundant.
14. Ganja and bhang are prepared by the
people themselves.
16. Ganja in the rough state is sold in the
bazar, The people prepare it for consumption
t hemsel ves. Ganj a, can be, and i s, prepared from
the wild plant. Coolies on coffee estates grow it
and prepare it.
19. Ganja is used in the way described below:—
Preparations of ganja for eating:—
(i) Green ganja leaves are ground on a curry
stone, mixed with pepper and ginger. This
mixture is made into pills, and the pills
are eaten.
(ii) Dried ganja leaves are powdered and mixed
with powdered rose leaves, poppy seeds,
cardamoms, ginger, and pepper. These
are beaten to a powder. Cocoanut milk
and water with sliced plantains are added
to the powder and made into a paste. This
paste is eaten little by little for several
days. This is the mode of consumption
preferred by well-to-do people.
20. Religious mendicants, fakirs,
M u h a m – m a d a n s . T h e p r o p o r t i o n . i s n o t k n o w n ; b u t I
should think all fakirs use it.
32. It (ganja) is used in the Kama festival (the
Holi festival) in South India. It is ground with
milk and sugar and eaten by men and women.
The Sattanis use it when they worship devils.
They put the juice into the food they eat. Sakti-
worshippers, both men and women, use it exten-
sively.
33. There has been from time immemorial a
strong public opinion against it. It is wholly in
disrepute.
In the "Tanvanthiri wisdom," stanzas 49
A-493, disciples for Yogam are told—" Hemp smok-
ing will increase bile, destroy the brain, and
cause consumption."
In Tiravullavar's Guna Seth, stanza 859, can-
didates for the state of Yogam are ordered to
reject utterly "opium, ganja, and liquor;" they
are urged to use milk, rice, and green gram.
Mattralangi, the great ascetic, also urges his fol-
lowers not to take ganja, liquor and opium, In the
Nunthi Sar Gunman, the 100th poem, sloka 2, are
the words—" If one wishes to take a disciple, let
the disciple be examined a hundred times * * *
If he is addicted to ganja, toddy or other liquor,
he must be forthwith rejected, and the master
must see him no more."
It must be noted that these lines are by Tamil
poets, who lived more than a thousand years
ago.
40. Yes; for inducing sleep and allaying pain.
41, No.
42, I have known cases where ganja has been
taken in the form of a pill every night. In each
case the drug had a cumulative effect. A most
awful kind of dyspepsia was the result, and the
patient, after enduring torture for some time,
just died with startling suddenness, I have seen
three cases like this the last two years. The
men referred to had taken ganja moderately for
years.
43. Moderate consumers whom I have known
have generally taken a ganja pill at night.
Beyond being very irascible, I do not think they
were offensive.
44. The pill produces instant exhilaration, in
fact intoxicates ; the effect passes in the course of
two or three hours. The after-effects are shown
in bad temper if provoked.
45. I have seen fakirs and others ruined by
ganja smoking. There is a notorious instance in
Salem of a man who, through ganja smoking, has
a vitiated aopetite. He eats filthy things, and is
an awful object lesson on the abuse of ganja.
The effect I have observed in other cases is
that of imbecility or rather besottedness, mentally
and physically, great emaciation, a staggering
walk, staring look, and sunken bloodshot eyes.
The moral perceptions do not exist in these cases.
51. I should say 75 per cent. bad characters
use these drugs in some form. In certain cases
the drug inflames men's passions and drives them
to deeds of violence, but these are not numerous.
Oral evidence.
1. I have been in three districts in the presi-
dency, and for the last thirteen years in Salem.
My experience is therefore drawn principally from
Salem. I have watched ganja smokers as an
itinerating missionary, travelling 180 days a year
through the villages, examining schools, and
p r e a c h – i n g b a z a r s . S o m e t e n y e a r s a g o a n o l d b a i r a g i
came to me and desired to become a Christian.
When we attempted to teach him, be forgot one
day what we had told him on the previous day.
When the people heard he was frequenting our