CANNABIS INDICA 41 



thousand eyes, and conferred on it the property of driv- 

 ing away all disease and killing all monsters; it is praised 

 as the best of remedies, and is worn as a precious talis- 

 man; along with hemp, it prevents wandering fever and 

 the evil eye." 



The name of cannabis, together with its product, 

 hashish or bhang, threads the literature of both Arabia 

 and India, it being continually mentioned throughout 

 the Arabian Nights, for example: 



"Going up to Gharib, he blew the powdered bhang 

 into his nostrils, till he lost his senses." Burton's Ara- 

 bian Nights, History of Gharib and his Brother, Vol. VII. 



Interest in connection with Oriental names applied 

 to cannabis and its products, leads us to record the 

 terms cited in the Arabian Nights, and to attempt, 

 (perhaps unsuccessfully), to differentiate between the 

 drug cannabis and its products, as therein given. 1 



Bhang. Burton designates this as "The Arab Banj 

 and the Hindu Bhang." He says, "The use of Bhang 

 doubtless dates from the dawn of civilization, since the 

 earliest social pleasures would be of an inebriating 

 character." Herodotus (IV: C. 75), shows the Scyth- 

 ians burning the leaves and capsules in worship, and 

 becoming drunken with the fumes. Galen also men- 

 tions intoxication by hemp. The name bhang is used 

 most frequently in reference to the drug cannabis, but 

 it is applied also to its products. Says Burton, (Vol. X: 

 p. 165), "The poorer classes were compelled to puff 

 their Kayf (Bhang, Cannabis indica) and sip their black 

 coffee under a rainy sky." That this smoking of canna- 

 bis was very widely disseminated is shown in Vol. X: 



' ' That many extravagant statements aside from thought creations are embodied in these 

 wonderful tales all will admit. That they are based on the habits and histories of the Ara- 

 bians few will deny. That in such as cannabis and other Oriental products, Burton can not 

 be neglected, the writer of this history of drugs accepts. 



