118 Madden's Travels in Turkey, See. 



dependent for his pleasures upon this sort of adventitious ex- 

 citement. The common rnadjoun of Constantinople is com- 

 posed of the pistils of the flower of the hemp plant ground to 

 powder, and mixed up in honey, with cloves, nutmeg, and 

 saffron. 



Everyone has heard of the opium-eaters in Turkey, and the 

 author was naturally anxious to inform himself concerning 

 this supposed fascinating practice. The coffee-houses where 

 the Theriakis, or opium-eaters, assemble are situated in a 

 large square, near the mosque of Soly mania, and on a 

 bench outside the door, they await the wished for reve- 

 ries. There the author stationed himself to watch the 

 effects of the potent drug. The gestures of the men were 

 frightful. Those who were completely under the influence of 

 opium talked incoherently. Their features were flushed, their 

 eyes had an unnatural brilliancy, and the expression of their 

 countenances was horribly wild. The effect is usually produced 

 in two hours. The dose varies from three grains to sixty ; one 

 old man was seen by the author to take twenty-four grains in 

 two hours. He had been in the habit of eating opium for five 

 and twenty years. 



The effects of this practice are painted by the author in the 

 most dismal colours. " The debility," he says, " both moral 

 and physical, attendant upon it, is terrible. The appetite is 

 destroyed ; every fibre in the body trembles ; the nerves of the 

 neck become affected, and the muscles get rigid," producing 

 wry necks and contracted fingers. Life itself, as we may well 

 suppose, is shortened by it. A regular opium-eater seldom 

 lives beyond thirty years of age, if he commence the practice 

 early. The habit, however, is too agreeable to be easily aban- 

 doned. The man is miserable till the hour arrives for taking 

 his daily dose, but when its influence begins, he is all fire and 

 animation. Some compose verses, and others harangue the 

 bystanders, imagining themselves emperors, with all the harems 

 in the world at their command. 



The following detail of the author's own feelings when in- 

 toxicated by opium, is too curious to be omitted. It reminds 

 us very strongly of the inhalation of the nitrous oxide which 

 Sir H. Davy describes as producing a " thrilling, and a sense 

 of tangible extension highly pleasing, in every joint." The dose 

 which Mr. Madden took was four grains, shortly after which, 

 he says — 



" My spirits became sensibly excited: the pleasure of the sensa- 

 tion seemed to depend on a universal expansion of mind and matter. 

 My faculties appeared enlarged : every thing I looked on seemed 

 increased in volume ; I had no longer the same pleasure when I 



