THIRTY-FIVE YEARS IN THE EAST. Jt 



Rajah Heera Sin^f, son to the minister Dhyan Sing, who 

 was a favourite of Runjeet Sinnj's, was afflicted with dia- 

 betes, and we ( I and the five native physicians ) were con- 

 sulted, at the palace garden of Hazooree Bagh, in the 

 presence of Runjeet Sing, and on that occasion 1 made 

 mention of milk-sugar. As neither the Maharajah nor his 

 physicians had ever heard of any sugar prepared from the 

 milk of cows, they were curious to see a specimen of it, and 

 I was ordered to prepare some in the gulab-haneh ( rose-watar 

 house ), in the presence of the fakir, Noor-oo-Deen ; but they 

 had scarcely patience to wait for its preparation, I produced 

 5ome white and fine crystallized milk-sugat-, which I 

 presented in a box to Runjeet Sing, of which he gave a few' 

 pieces to a boy to taste, but he did not find it so sweet as 

 •cane-sugar, so no one spoke any more about it, and the 

 milk scene was thus at its end. The gulab-haneh, where 

 the rose-waters and the bed«musk ( aqua flor. salicis Baby- 

 lon ), which they use as cooling beverages in the hot season, 

 were distilled, was the very place where I at first practised, 

 and it v/as there I gave lessons in pharmacy and chemis- 

 try to the fakirs Aziz-oo-Deen and Noor-oo-Deen. The 

 spirit produced from Cabul grapes, for the use of Runjeet 

 Sing, was distiHed in that place in my presence, by his own ^ 

 people, because every thing eatable or drinkable, destined 

 for the Sikhs and Hindoos, must be prepared with their 

 own hands, no Christian or Musselraan being permitted to 

 touch it, lest they should pollute it. There were also the 

 royal magazines, under the care of Noor-oo-Deen, where I 

 prepared different opiates, and many amusing metallic 

 oxydes ( kooshtegee ), to please the fakir and Runjeet Sing, 

 for which they held me in high estimation. Among others, 

 I prepared some morphine, with a large dose of which the 

 Maharaja would surely have killed a famous opium-eater, 

 if I had not been consulted in time, and administered to 

 him some antidotes. I thought it strange that no one at 

 Lahore was aware of the existence of coffee, and its use- 

 fulness. Even the learned fakirs, Aziz-oo-Deen and Noor- 

 oo-Dsen ( brothers ), who were of Arab descent, knew coffee 

 II 



