THIRTY-FIVE YEARS IN THE EAST. 167 



containinjj poison or narcotics, as tea, hops, alcohol, and 

 carbonic acid. The Russian soldiers drank even nitric acid 

 instead of whiskey, Empyreumatic substances, which con- 

 tain, according to the opinion of Reichenbach, the strongest 

 poisons, as creosote, picamar, and kapnomar, we enjoy in 

 roasted and smoked meats, and in empyreumatical beve- 

 rages, as coffee, rum, whiskey, &c. The porter and ale 

 drinkers swallow, according to parliamentary reports, an 

 incredible quantity of coculus menispermum, nux vomica, 

 capsicum, ledum palustre, &c. We smoke tobacco ( which 

 contains one of the most formidable poisons ), or take 

 it for snuff; many even chew it, and the Portuguese 

 flavour their melons with it. The natives of the east 

 intoxicate themselves with opium and hemp plant. Lead, 

 bismuth, and even arsenic ( in rusma ), and other metals, 

 are found on the toilettes of the ladies. Prussic acid and 

 veratrum are cosmetics. Manganese, copper, and other 

 poisonous metals are found in a normal state in the food 

 which composes our daily fare ; for example, in the various 

 kinds of cereals, &c," 



The before-mentioned tree butea frondosa, yields the well- 

 known gum called Bengal Kino, which, with copperas affords 

 a good ink ; and it bears yellow-reddish flowers, which are 

 recommended for use in hip baths, by the native physicians, 

 in urinal disorders. They are used also by the poorer classes 

 for dyeing or colouring their clothes on the Holy (carnival) 

 and Besanti ( yellow feast ), The light powders called altah, 

 which they throw over each other, during the Holy, and 

 which are of variegated colours, are prepared from rice and 

 water-nuts ( trapa bispinosa ) ; the yellow one is tinted with 

 the same colouring substance. The water too, which they 

 throw on each other during the Holy, is coloured with the 

 same flower, because of its fugitive nature. The dried leaves 

 of the above tree are also in requisition among the natives for 

 a variety of purposes, and are sold at the bazaar at Lahore 



Affghan physician, whom I mentioned as habitually using arsenic; and, it 

 will be recollected, that he was also a horse-dealer, and therefore likely 

 to be acquainted with its use in veterinary medicine. 



