THE MORALITY OF THE OPIUM TRADE. 763 



Koumiss; certainly not so much as " Glasgow bodies" from whisky, or London- 

 ers from gin. The women in Rajpootana prepare the Kasumba, and it will be re- 

 membered that in the Odyssey it is Helen who prepares the famous nepenthic drug. 

 " Meanwhile, with genial joy to warm the soul, 

 Bright Helen mixed a mirth-inspiring bowl." 

 In 1809, Rajpootana was thrown into disorder by the contest of the princes 

 for the hand of Krishna Kumari, the beautiful daughter of the Rana of Oodey- 

 pore. To stay the fratricidal strife, the heroic maiden mixed a bowl of kasumba, 

 and exclaiming: "This is the marriage foredoomed for me," drank it off at a 

 draught and sank down and died, so restoring peace to the distracted land. I 

 have a strong suspicion that the free use of opium in Rajpootana acts as a pre- 

 ventative of malarious fevers. It is evident, in short, that there are two sides to 

 the question of the morality of the use of even opium itself, and all the facts re- 

 garding its real effects should be fully placed in evidence before the public when 

 the relations of the Government of India with its manufacture and exportation 

 are being made the butt of ignorant and prejudiced opposition. Even the eating 

 and drinking of opium appeared to me so little harmful, and the instances of any 

 consequent evil so rare, that all the time I was in India I was an advocate of the 

 use of all stimulants in moderation, and it was only when I returned to England, 

 and saw on all sides of me, and every day, the evil effects of the abuse of alcohol, 

 that I was gradually led to sympathize with those who urge voluntary abstinence 

 from every form of stimulant. If, however, it is impossible to object altogether 

 to stimulants, we can no more object altogether to opium. Its use is merely a 

 question of geography and race, and not of morality in the least. A fortiori, 

 there is nothing to be said on moral grounds against opium smoking. If any one 

 will test its effects, he will find that half its soothing and pleasure is derived from 

 the opportunity it affords for abandoning one's self for a few moments to idleness 

 with the pretence of occupation, in preparing the dainty apparatus used by well- 

 to-do connoisseurs in the operation — the elegant lamp, the exquisite damascened 

 pipe, and quaintly chased silver pins, and cleaning and putting them all back 

 again in the drawer of the low japanned table, which is the respectable opium- 

 smoker's fire-altar and altar of incense in one, from which the smoke goeth up 

 continually. Those who are fond of rolling up their own cigarettes — probably 

 not composed of tobacco — will understand this. Then for the rest, there is the 

 supreme satisfaction felt by men of every color, creed, and race, in passing any 

 mild smoke, especially if it be in any sort fragrant, in and out of the mucous 

 passages of their head, which pleasure is quite independent of the positive phy.sio- 

 logical action that the smoke-stuff itself may possess, while for any narcotic prop- 

 erty there may be in the smoke of thoroughly combusted chandus — in the ashes, 

 that is, of smokable extract of opium — the subtlest chemical analysis would prob- 

 ably be baffled to find it out. Blowing soap-bubbles itself can, indeed, scarcely 

 be a more ethereal enjoyment than sucking chandu smoke into the throat and 

 blowing it out again through the nose, and sometimes, by finished performers, 

 through the inner corners of the eyes. — Neiv Remedies. 



