( 6 )
fruits and flowering-tops mixed with the leaves indicate that everything borne
on the stalk or branch has been roughly stripped off. The leaves have long
stalks and the blades,—except at the very end of the branches and just under-
neath the flowering-tops, where they are simple,—are digitate, the segments
varying from three in the leaves at the top of the plant to nine or eleven in the
very large leaves below—the most general number is perhaps seven. These
segments are long and narrow (lance-shaped), sharply toothed along the edges,
but ending in a long narrow smooth tip. When dried as siddhi the leaves
retain their green colour, but their characteristic shape and size are not re-
cognisable ; they are always broken into a coarse powder, which retains to some
extent the characteristic odour of the plant. The leaves at the bottom of the
stem are rejected when the collection of bhang is a matter of care, as these
larger leaves, already almost fully formed before the plant begins to possess any
narcotic qualities, are known to be almost completely inert.
Although siddhi is the name by which this substance is best known in
Bengal, and is its official designation,1 t h e n a m e s
s u b j i
a n d
P a t t i
a r e a l s o l o c a l l y
applied to it ; the name by which it is most generally known is bhang. These
words are precisely equivalent, and it is necessary to point this out because,
though Mr. Kerr has been careful to explain this, 2 s u b s e q u e n t w r i t e r s h a v e f a l l e n
again into the mistake of imagining that the names indicate different substances.
The collection of bhang is very general in India, especially in the plains
and on the lower hills; this being the area in which the resin does not come
largely to the surface of the leaves unless the male plant is destroyed and
fertilization prevented. Bhang is held in very different degrees of estimation
according to the locality in which it is grown ; that from the plains is valued
more highly than that from the submontane tracts along the Himalaya. Even
when the article is produced by plains' hemp, the bhang obtained from plants
grown in gardens or fenced plots is considered of the highest quality. This
does not indicate that a greater amount of narcotic material is formed by the
plant, for beyond fencing the spot in which it grows no attention is paid to the
plant ; it is not 'cultivated' in the sense that gánjá is cultivated. It does, how-
ever, indicate that greater care is taken in selecting the plants when they are
richest in narcotic ; they are not gathered so young that the resinous substance
is not yet fully formed, or so old that it has become dissipated. And it indi-
cates also that greater care is taken in rejecting the large inert lower leaves ;
perhaps also the leaves of male plants are kept out.
The active principle being in bhang diffused, a m o n g t h e t i s s u e s o f t h e l e a f ,
this is the mildest of the three natural forms in which the narcotic is presented.
It is usually consumed by being ground into a paste ; of this paste an emulsion
is made and then drunk ; not, however, as a rule as a simple emulsion, but as a
mixture into which at least some spices enter ; it is often composed of sugar,
milk, melon seeds, and pepper. Sometimes opium is added to the fluid; musk
and other substances may enter into its composition as well. 3
Besides being taken in this way, bhang forms the basis of a series of con-
fections to which the general name májún is given. Sometimes this is a simple
sweetmeat of sugar, butter, flour, and milk, with bhang as the only intoxicant,
but it would appear to be a general custom to medicate the electuary still
further with opium, nux vomica, and especially with dhatura seeds. 4
The name májún is used_ not only in India but in all Arabic-speaking
countries for confections of which hemp is the basis ; but in Syria, Turkey, and
Egypt the effects for which the sweetmeat is eaten are plainly intended to be
produced by the other ingredients ; besides pepper, saffron, camphor, and similar
substances, these include such powerful drugs as opium and cantharides.
In Syria, and indeed throughout the Levantine countries and Barbary, the
name haschisch is sometimes used as exactly equivalent to bhang. The word is
not, however, limited in the way that the word bhang is, for it is oftener applied
to the crude resin or charas, and as a still later usage, to both an alcoholic
extract and a tincture of the plant. Instead of having four words, as in Bengal,
meaning one thing, in Egypt we find one word designating as many different
1
E x c i s e M a n u a l , L . P . , p a g e 1 5 2 .
2
H . C . K e r r ,R
e p o r t ,p
. 1 0 .
3 R u m p h i u s ,
H e r b . A m b o i n .
v , 2 1 0 .
4 O'Shaughnessy, Bengal Dispensatory, p. 584; Ainslie, Materia Madica, ii, 177.