VBTICACE2E. 321 



becomes an outcasto from society, and his career terminates 

 in crime, insanity, or idiotcy. 



Ganja pie gtir-gyan c/hate, aur ghate tan andar ha, 

 Khokatt khokat dam nikse, mukk dekho jaisa bandar ka. 



Who ganja smoke do knowledge lack, the heart bums constantly, 

 The breath with coughing goes, the face as monkey's pale you see. 



Fallon, 



According to tradition, the nse of hemp as an intoxicant was 

 first made known in Persia by Birarslan, an Indian pilgrim, in 

 the rcigu of Khusru the first (A.D. 531 — 579), but, as we have 

 already stated, its injurious properties appear to have been 

 known lone before that date. 



intoxicant 



was encouraged by the Ismailians in the 8th century, as its 

 effects tended to assist their followers ia realising the tenets of 

 the sect: 



We've quaffed the emeraUl cup, the mystery we know, 

 Who'd dream so weak a plant such mighty power could show! 



Hasan Sabah, their celebrated chief, in the llth century 

 notoriously made use of it to urge them on to the commission of 

 deeds of daring and violence so that they became known as the 

 fthshashin or "Assassins." Hasan studied the tenets of his 



H 



sect in retirement at Nishapur, doubtless at the monastery 

 noticed by O'Shaughnessy {Bengal Dispenrntori/), in the following 

 terms : — "* Haidar lived in rigid privation on a mountain between 

 Nishapur and Rama, where he established a mojtiastcry ; after 

 ha vino- lived ten years in this retreat, he one day returned from 

 a stroll in the neighbourhood with an air of joy and gaiety; on 

 being questioned, he stated that, struck by the appearance of a 

 plant, he had gathered and eaten its leaves. He then led his 

 companions to the spot, who all ate and were similarly excited, 

 A tincture of the hemp leaf in wine or spirit seems to have been 

 the favourite formula in which Sheikh Haidar indulged himself. 

 An Arab poet sings of Haidar's emerald cup, an evident 



III— 41 



