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smoked, while bhang is taken in the shape of a
drink.
It is unnecessary to say how ganja and charas
are smoked; suffice it to say that before smoking,
ganja is pulverized, mixed with tobacco leaf, and
made into a sort of pill mass by the manipulation
of the operator's right thumb over the left palm,
with the addition of a few drops of water; while
charas is mixed with prepared tobacco after drying
it over fire. The smoking is generally done by
chillum or huka. Bhang or siddhi is taken as a
drink, and is prepared by pounding it on a pestle
and mortar with rose leaves, black pepper, cucum-
ber, water-melon, cardamom seeds, and then
either mixed with milk and sugar or plain water.
Sometimes siddhi is chewed with pan.
The effects of the three varieties are identical;
except when smoked, the action is more rapid.
Ganja-smoking is more or less prevalent amongst
all classes of men, but it is more widely used by
the lower classes of society than by the upper
ones. Native musicians, as a class, smoke
ganja with the object of improving their voice.
The lower orders of East Indians and Portuguese
also smoke ganja. I think it is on account of
its cheapness that the ganja is largely consumed
by the poor. There are some persons who must
have some intoxicant, no matter what it is—ganja,
charas, bhang, opium or wine; but their number
is limited.
The habit of smoking ganja or charas is first
contracted, in the case of those who generally lead
a life of dissipation, for its aphrodisiac properties.
It is a prevailing notion among such men that
they are able to go on with their peculiar mode
of life for a longer period if they smoke ganja.
The exhilarating effects produced by the moderate
use of this drug are highly appreciated, and the
smoker with his sharpened appetite can not only
eat plenty of food, but, so long as the effects last,
forgets all the miseries and troubles of his life,
without any detriment to his constitution. It is
not unusual for some to imbibe the habit of ganja-
smoking for some bodily ailments, such as rheu-
matism, colic, dyspepsia, etc., but the majority of
the consumers contract their habit from dissipated
mode of life and bad company. When once the
habit is well formed, it is very difficult to shake
it off. I have seen persons who can daily consume
ganja to the extent of a tola, and siddhi to the
extent of more than half a pound. Fakirs or
ascetics are invariably ganja-smokers, and people
will be surprised to hear the quantity of ganja
they smoke and siddhi they consume in 24 hours.
Sometimes they become so habituated to its use,
that exhilaration and intoxication are no longer
produced in them, so that they have to combine
ganja with other intoxicants, such as dhatura
seeds. Some of them also mix white arsenic with
their bhang. I have seen a young man of a high
aristocratic family of Calcutta consuming bhang
to the extent of a pound a day, and at times even
putting small quantities of arsenic with his drink.
I do not share the opinions of those who say
that moderate ganja-smoking is always productive
of mental derangements. The Indian fakirs or
religious mendicants are proverbially ganja-smok-
ers, but they never show symptoms of insanity;
on the contrary, they are generally quiet and
inoffensive. Moreover, they assert that they can
concentrate their attention better after a ganja
smoke or bhang drink. Those that are the
offsprings of parents who are themselves liable to
brain disorders suffer from mental aberrations when
they contract the habit of ganja-smoking. I
know a man who worked as an assistant to a
respectable merchant of this city lose his job for
this habit. His hallucination was that he had
become a mahant, and that every one would pay
respects to him for his dignified position. Gra-
dually his smoking was reduced, and he is now
free from that mental aberration. From this and
other similar cases, I have come to the conclusion
that smoking of ganja is not the sole cause of
madness.
I was for a while in the heart of a country so
notorious for bhang-drinkers. The Brajabashis
and Chaubes of Mathra are proverbially bhang-
drinkers and ganja-smokers. From infancy they
imbibe this habit, and never give it up till death.
They are generally healthy and stout, and some
of them are great eaters. Pilgrims who go there
for amusement, feed them, and it is no exagger-
ation to say that many of them can take five to
ten seers of food in one sitting. At first, I could
not believe such a thing, until I was one day
invited to witness this fact. They say that they
cannot eat half as much unless they take a
sufficient quantity of bhang beforehand.
Bhang or siddhi is a household remedy of the
natives of Bengal for various complaints, especially
indigestion. I have seen persons suffering very
badly from dyspepsia materially benefited by the
moderate use of bhang, combined with aromatics,
before food. For its benefit in indigestion,
stomach-ache, loss of appetite, and other complaints,
it enjoys a good repute amongst the orthodox
Hindus, who never forget to put the name of
siddhi (signifying success) at the head of the list
of articles intended to be bought for any social or
religious ceremonies.
Now as to the question whether ganja or
bhang is always used for purposes of intexication,
revelry or dissipation, my answer is in the nega-
tive.
In countries like Bengal, Orissa and
Assam, where poor inhabitants in their daily life
are constantly exposed to all vicissitudes of tem-
perature, now burning under a scorching sun, at
the next moment being drenched by a heavy
shower, it cannot be gainsaid that all sorts of
tropical diseases are rampant. Malarious fevers,
diarrhœa, dysentery, cholera, influenza, eruptive
fevers, are all endemic, and it is a wonder how the
people of such places could survive the dire
ravages of these diseases. Though thousands of
men succumb annually to these maladies, still a
large percentage is left to prevent the countries
being made deserts. How this large per cent. of
people escape the jaws of death amidst such in-
sanitary surroundings? The poor sufferers who
cannot either afford to have medical help or
medicines, or to travel miles to avail themselves of
the benefit of the charitable dispensaries, are saved
from their untimely deaths by the use of those
drugs which are now the subjects of two Govern-
ment Commissions. It is a fact beyond dispute,
that those who moderately use ganja or opium
can tide over or pull through an epidemic better
than those who do not. Tetanus, rheumatism,
ague, diarrhœa, dysentery, cholera, dyspepsia and
many painful disorders of the urinary or genera-
tive organs yield to the anodyne, soporific, anti-
periodic, antispasmodic, and other properties of
ganja or opium. Aided by these remedies the
inhabitants combat for life and death.
How
many people of this description become the
denizens of lunatic asylums and are quoted as
proving to the world that ganja is one of the
most potent factors of insanity? Those hard
inebriates who lead a life of debauch and dissipa-