CANNABIS INDICA 45 



'promoter of success/ 'the cause of a reeling gait,' 

 'the laughter moving/ etc. 



"The seductive influences of hemp have led to the 

 most extravagant praise of the drug in the popular 

 languages of India, but in truth it is one of the curses 

 of the country; if its use is persisted in, it leads to in- 

 digestion, wasting of the body, cough, melancholy, im- 

 potence and dropsy. After a tune its votary becomes 

 an outcast from society, and his career terminates in 

 crime, insanity and idiocy. 



" 'Who ganja smoke do knowledge lack, the heart burns con- 

 stantly, 



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

 see.' Fallon. 



"According to tradition, the use of hemp as an in- 

 toxicant was first made known in Persia by Birarslan, 

 an Indian pilgrim, in the reign of Khusru the First 

 (A. D. 531-579), but as we have already stated, its in- 

 jurious properties appear to have been known long 

 before that date. 



"There can be no doubt that the use of hemp as an 

 intoxicant was encouraged by the Ismailians in the 8th 

 century, as its effects tended to assist their followers in 

 realizing the tenets of the sect: 



" 'We've quaffed the emerald 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 Hashshashin or 'Assassins.' 

 Hasan studied the tenets of his sect in retirement at 

 Nishapur, doubtless at the monastery noticed by 



