120
Tippera, where the Muhammadans are strict
fakirs, and so obliged to refrain from all intoxi¬
cants, ganja is largely consumed.—W. O.)
21. My experience is that tastes vary accord¬
ing to localities. In Burdwan and Monghyr the
staple is round ganja. In East Bengal it was
flat in my time.
22. Not known.
23. Yes; in Mymensingh and Dacca to a very
small extent by the lowest classes as a substitute
for ganja.
24. Up-country men living in Bengal use
bhang as a drink largely.
25. Is stationary. The fluctuations are casual.
26. (a) About 90 per cent, ganja smokers.
(b) About 10 per cent.
(c) As regards bhang, moderation is the rule,
and I have never come across a case of excess.
27. The working classes, the cultivating classes,
boatmen, and fishermen.
Hard work and aquatic habits lead to the prac¬
tice. In Dacca the weaver class, which is a
wealthy one, generally smoke ganja.
The sanyasis all over the country are addicted
to the excessive use of ganja. It is said to pro¬
tect them from the effects of exposure.
(It is taken as a prophylactic to fever by people
who have to work in the wet.—W. O.)
28. (a) One pice worth of ganja generally,
from one-twelfth to one-sixteenth of a tola.
(b) About four to five times this cost and
quantity.
29. Black pepper is pounded with bhang, and
drunk in a solution of sugar.
30. Ganja is often smoked in company. Bhang
also during the Durga Puja. It is confined to
the male sex. But prostitutes in East Bengal do
smoke ganja, and children very rarely.
31. (a) and (b) Ganja smoking is easily formed,
and it is difficult to break it off.
(c) No.
32. In East Bengal, on the occasion of the
puja of Trinath, ganja smoking is considered es¬
sential, and is sometimes excessive. Confirmed
smokers generally congregate. Their example
might prove injurious. Bhang is drunk during the
Durga Puja on the Nahami day.
33. Bhang is not in disrepute, though ganja
smoking is. Ganja smoker, like opium eater, is
a term of opprobrium. I am not aware of any
particular basis for this sentiment, except that it
is an opinion handed down from father to son,
and people seldom analyse it. I am not aware of
any custom sanctioning the worship of the plant.
34. Yes, as the giving up of all confirmed habits.
The prevention, however, as in the case of tobacco
smokers, will be felt as a temporary suffering.
With a large number of consumers, the use of
ganja is not a daily habit, and the restraints of
self-denial will ultimately prevail with them. In
the matter of creating a powerful craving ganja
is much inferior to opium, but in cases where it
has been generated the privation will be surely
felt. There would be about 10 per cent. of these.
35. (a) and (c) Yes; ganja and charas by pro¬
hibiting cultivation, but not bhang, which grows
abundantly in a wild state in several districts.
(b) It would not be easy at all to consume ganja
illicitly, for a plant could not be cultivated with
anything like the secrecy with which distillation of
liquor can be managed.
(d) Certainly for a time like the discontent caused
by the abolition of the outstill system, and to a
greater extent.
(e) In no way.
(f) Yes, in the cases of persons who cannot get
on without some sort of stimulant.
(I concur. I supply ganja to our Hindustani
artificers in the Lushai Hills.—W. O.)
36 Not to my knowledge, but many people
use both.
37. I know almost nothing about charas.
38. Chur, being the droppings of the flower,
does not contain so much of the resinous matter
as the other two kinds do, and is consequently not
quite so strong.
39. The drinking of bhang is popularly believed
to be less injurious than ganja smoking.
40. (a) I am not aware of ganja being used
by native doctors. In dysentery bhang is pre¬
scribed.
(b) In East Bengal bhang is also used in
treating the bovine species, and in Burdwan it
was habitually given to the Raj Bari elephants
as a tonic.
41. (a) Bhang is used as a digestive, or at
least an appetiser.
(b) and (c) Ganja is so used.
Well-to-do Beharis use bhang in the way indi¬
cated, and fishermen, boatmen, palki-bearers, and
coolies in the way indicated in (b) and (c).
(Vide my note to question 35, which shows that
we find it beneficial in the circumstances. —W. O.)
42. Apparently harmless, because consumers of
this class look quite healthy and robust. But
medical experts only can tell whether moderate,
but habitual, use ultimately tells upon the con¬
stitution.
43. Yes.
44. In the case of those who use ganja and
bhang moderately, it is refreshing and exhilarat-
ing, and the latter creates appetite. The effect
would last for an hour or so, and is followed by a
slight depression, which passes off quickly with¬
out causing any uneasiness.
45. I am not in a position to answer these ques¬
tions, as I had no occasion to watch any consumer
of the kind referred to.
(Of the mad men whom I have found confined
for examination in jails, the madness of, I think,
nine out of ten was attributed to ganja. Vide
also my note on question 20. We certainly
thought that it emboldened and made more reck¬
less and troublesome the Kharwar Sonthals who
were sometimes very troublesome.-W. O.)
46. I have seen half-witted people, who are
hard ganja smokers; and evidently the weakness
of the brain had been brought on by excess.
47 and 48. I have no knowledge on this point,
though heredity in this respect also is quite pos¬
sible. There is always the strong inducement of
example.
49. (a) Not that I know of.
(b) Prostitutes use these as cheap intoxi¬
cants.