sanskrit {and stuff like that} "beware & prepare"!

=

An
intoxicating agent
with such recommendations
cannot but be popular and so we find it in general use
amongst all classes especially in the North~West provinces and Behar;
preparations of Indian hemp are
therefore also quite
amusing and
intriguing?

Bhang/sidhee,
&/or subjee are used
with water as a drink which is thus prepared:
about three grams are well washed with cold water, then rubbed to powder, mixed with black pepper, cucumber and melon seeds, sugar, half-a-pint of milk and an equal quantity of water.
This is considered sufficient to intoxicate an habituated person.
Half the quantity is enough for a novice & intoxication will ensue within half an hour.
Almost invariably the inebriation is of the most cheerful kind,
causing the person to sing and dance, to eat food with great relish,
and to seek aphrodisiac
enjoyments.

In
persons of
a quarrelsome nature
it occasions, as might be expected,
an exasperation of their natural tendency.
The intoxication lasts about three hours, when sleep supervenes.
No nausea os sickness of the stomach succeeds,
nor are the bowels at all affected;
next day
there is a slight giddiness
and vascularity of the eyes,
but no other
symptom worth
recording.

The
Majoon
or hemp confection,
is a compound of sugar, butter, flour, milk, and siddhi or bhang:
the process has been repeatedly performed before us by Ameer, the proprietor of a celebrated place of resort for hemp devotees in Calcutta and who is considered the best artist in his profession.
About four ounces of siddhi and an equal quantity of ghee {clarified butter from milk of buffalo or cow} are placed in an earthen vessel, a pint of water added,
and the whole warmed over a charcoal fire.
This mixture is constantly stirred until the water all boils away, which is knwn by the crackling noise of the melted butter on the sides of the vessel.
The mixture is then removed from the fire, squeezed throuhgh cloth while hot,
by which an oleaginous solution of the active principles and colouring matter of the hemp is obtained;
and the leaves, fibres, etc., remaining on the cloth are thrown away.
The green oily solution soon concretes into a buttery mass and is then well washed by the hand in soft water, so long as the water becomes coloured.
The colouring matter and an extractive substance are thus removed and a very pale green mass,
of the consistence of
simple ointment,
remains.

The
washings then
are thrown away.
Ameer says that these are intoxicating,
and produce constriction of the throat, great pain and very disagreeable and dangerous symptoms.
The operator then takes two pounds of sugar,
and adding a little water, places it in a pipkin {small clay pot}
over the fire ...

When
the sugar
dissolves and froths,
two ounces of milk are added;
a thick scum rises and is removed;
more milk and a little water are added from time to time,
and the boiling continued about an hour,
the solution being carefully stirred until it becomes an adhesive clear syrup, ready to solidify on a cold surface; four ounces of tyre {new milk dried before the sun} in fine powder are now stirred in,
and lastly the prepared butter of hemp in introduced, brisk stirring
being continued for a few
minutes ...

A
few drops
of attar of roses
are then quickly sprinkled in,
and the mixture poured from the pipkin
on a flat cold dish or
slab ...

The
mass concretes
immediately into a thick cake,
which is divided into small
lozenge~shaped
pieces.

The
taste is
sweet and the
odour very agreeable.
Ameer states that sometimes
by special order of customers he even introduces stramonium seeds {!},
but never nux vomica; that all classes of persons including the lower Portuguese and especially thier females consume the drug; that it is most fascinating in its effects, producing ecstatic happiness,
a persuation of high rank, a sensation of flying {!}, voracious appetite and intense aphrodisiac desire ...
The leaves of cannabis sativa are purified by being boiled in milk before use:
they are regarded as heating,
digestive, astringent,
and narcotic.

The intoxication
produced by "BHANG"
is said to be of a pleasant description and to promote talkativeness;
in sleeplessness, the powder of the dried leaves
is given in suitable doses
for inducing sleep &
removing pain
...