Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1849-05-31
The Hashish.
SINGULAR EFFECTS OF AN ORIENTAL DRUG.

SINGULAR EFFECTS OF AN ORIENTAL DRUG.
A writer in Chambers Journal recalls
the public attention to the singular effects
of this drug, the produce of the Indian hemp,
which, particularly in France, since 1916,
has been a matter of interest in its connex-
ion with medicine. French authors of dis
tinction have published memoirs ON the SUBJ
ject; NJ. Virey attempting to prove it the
Nepenthe of Homer Syvestre de Sacy find
ing in it the charms practiced by the Assas-
sins. But the author, Theodore Gautier,
has given the most wonderful account of its
eifects-from his own sensations.
The Orientals," says he, have in con-
sequence of the Introduction of wine, sought
that species of excitement which the west
ern nations derive from alcoholic drinks.
The love of the ideal is SO dear to man. that
he attempts as far as he can, to relax the
ties which bind the body to the soul and
as the means of being in an ecstatic state
are not in the power of all, one person
drinks for gaiety, another smokes for for
gettulness, third devours momentary mad
ness; one under the form of wine, the other
under that of tobacco and hashish."
He then proceeds to say, that few min
utes after swallowing some of the prepare
ton, sudden overwhelming sensation took
possession of him. 1t appeared to him that
his body was dissolved, that he had become
transparent. He clearly saw in his chest
the hashish which he had swallowed, under
the form of an emerald, from which thou
sand little sparks issued. His eye-lashes
were heightened out indefinitely, and rolled
like threads of gold around ivory balls, which
turned with an uncomfortable rapiGity. -
Around him were sparklings of precious
stones of all coors, changes cternally pro-
duced, like the play of the kaleidoscope.
He every now and then saw his friends
who were round him ds6gured--halr men,
half plants, some with the wings of the os-
trich, which they were constantly shaking.
So strange were these, that he burst into
fits of laughter; and to join in the apparent
righteousness of the affair, he began throw
ing the cushions in the air, catching and
turning them with the rapidity of an Indian
juggler. One gentleman spoke to him in
Italian, which the hashish transposed into
Spanish. After a few minutes he recovered
his habitual camness, without any bad eff
feet, without headache, and only astonished
at what had passed. Half an hour had
scarcely elapsed before he had fallen again
under the influence of tho drug. On this
occasion the vision was more complicated
and more extraordinary. In the air there
were millions of butterflies confusedly lu-
minous, shaking their wings like fans. Gil
gan,c flow ers with chaices of chrystal Pc
onies upon beds of gold and silver, rose and
surrounded him with the cracking sound
that accompanies the explosion in the air
of fireworks. His hearing acquired new
power; it was enormously developed. He
heard the noise of colors. Green, red, blue
and yellow sounds reached him in waves.
A glass thrown down, the cracking of So
ia, a word pronounced low, vibrated and
rolled within him like peals of thunder
His own voice sounded SO loud that he feared
to speak, lest he should knock down the
walls, or explode like rocket More than
five hundred clocks struck the hour with
fleeing, silvery voices; and every object
touched gave note like the harmonica or
Eoian harp. He swan in an ocean OF
sound, where foated, like isles of purest
light, songs of Lucia di Lammermoor'
and the " Barber of Seville" Never did
similar bliss overwhelm him with its waves
he was lost in wilderness Of sweets he
was not himself; he was relieved from con-
seriousness, that feeling which always pre-
vades the mind and for the first time he
comprehended what might be the state OF
existence of elementary beings, of angels,
of souls separated from the body: all his
system seemed to be infected with the fan.
tastic coloring in which he was plunged
Sound, perfume, light, reached him only by
minute rays, in the midst of which he heard
magic currents whistling along. Accor'
ding TO his calculation this state lasted about
three hundred years; for the sensations were
so numerous and hurried, one upon the
other, that real appreciation of time wa;
impossible. The paroxysm over, he wa,
aware that it had lasted only quarter o
an hour.