( 71 )
when the stimulant effect of the first close is approaching its maximum, the
stimulant effect of the second is beginning to act, and by the steady repetition of
doses a cumulative stimulant effect is produced. The state of exhaustion that
is supposed to follow the 'possession' is no more than the narcosis that must
result when the excitement has passed off, while the fact that much hemp is
required to induce the stimulant effect, renders the narcotism that follows the
more severe. That the ignorant on-looker should suppose the condition super-
natural is not of moment, but that the Sany asi himself should be, as is the case,
quite free from any desire or attempt to deceive in the matter, and is himself
deluded, is of serious import. It indicates the mental deficiency concomitant
in all faiths with supersaturation by religious sentiment ; consultation of our
asylum records shows that not infrequently men of the class, once the practice
is established, develop insanity. It may be mentioned in passing, however,
that it is extremely rare for the true relationship of cause and effect to be
noted. The reporting authorities in such cases, with scarcely an exception,
return such a patient as insane from the use of gánjá instead of recording the
fact that the use of gánjá in such a manner as to produce dementia is due
to insanity. This would be of less consequence were the fallacy not repeated
in our lunacy statistics, thus vitiating still further the already sufficiently
unreliable nature of the figures these exhibit. The use of gánjá by smoking
sometimes takes the place of the use of bhang for the purpose of producing
this condition.
There is, however, another non-objective mode in which hemp is used by
the mendicant class ; this may be now described. Instead of using bhang, gánjá
alone is employed, and instead of taking smaller doses frequently repeated, the
subject takes one large dose. The habitual gánjá-smoking mendicant can keep
the initial stage of excitement that follows quite under control, and can then enjoy
the sedative after-effect, which is what he aims at and attains. The suffused
eyes, sodden aspect and far-away look, of the members of a school of fakirs
are familiar to all, and are characteristic of the condition. If one of these men
be spoken to, however, and if he will reply (not at all a necessary consequence), it
will be found that he is perfectly conscious, and if well inured to the drug, quite
rational in his replies. He is exhibiting, in fact, the full physiological effects of
hemp in a subject accustomed to its use. In this case the dose has been deliber-
ately taken in order to blunt the feelings of heat or cold, to dull the call of the
appetites, to keep the mind unimpressed by surrounding objects. This is an
intelligent fakir's account of his condition and his motives. The condition
we know to be correctly described ; the motives are not necessarily exag-
gerated. Many medicants are, however, religious only in name, and though
they use the substance as extensively as their worthier brethren, probably only
do so for its intoxicant effect, and, like a class to be mentioned presently, concen-
trate their attention on anything but holy thoughts. One thing, however, which
these people agree in insisting on is that the substance suppresses the sexual
appeti te. Perhaps they ‘protest too much' ; a mendi cant' s statement does not
necessarily inspire belief. Still the statement accords with other evidence; and
since the fact that they give this as a motive for taking the drug is, perhaps, the
best evidence that it is not their motive, we may, I think, take the statement to
be substantially correct.
A striking point in connection with this use of the drug is that, in spite
of the heavy doses, daily repeated, in which they indulge, these men are physi-
cally hardly, if at all, affected by its use. There are none of the signs, in the
majority of these cases, of the debility that accompanies the constant use, in far
smaller doses, of bhang. This, again, is contrary to popular belief and to state-
ments frequently repeated but founded on merely casual observation. The
explanation is not far to seek. A mendicant, unless he be voluntarily ascetic,
is always as an animal in a well-nourished state ; starve who may, he lacks
neither milk nor rice ; he leads besides a healthy outdoor life. Hemp, like any
other narcotic, is best resisted by the robust, and the medicant therefore suffers
but little. But there is more than this; smoked, the narcotic substance more
rapidly affects the nervous system than when it is taken internally, but it
certainly burdens the digestive system far less ; as a custom, therefore, the
excessive smoking of gánjá is physically less unwholesome than the excessive
drinking of bhang.