Experiences of Haschisch. 437 



and sit down. The twitching changed to a sharp pricking sen- 

 sation, most violent in the extremities, and for a moment the 

 thought crossed my mind that I had been poisoned by strych- 

 nine. I opened a drawer to find an emetic, but the drawer had 

 gone, and in its place sat one of my antediluvian monsters 

 grinning at me — a real icthyosaurus, with a red cap on its 

 head, and with drum and pandean pipes. For about six weeks 

 — so at the time I determined the period — it played a monoto- 

 nous tune, while I sat on the ground laughing and enjoying the 

 idea of my toes and fingers being elongated into claws, when 

 suddenly the thought seized me that I would destroy the illu- 

 sion by an effort. I dashed at the monster, and my hand fell 

 on the handle of the drawer. The dream was dissolved, and I 

 could clearly understand that the ticking of my watch and the 

 singing of a bird in the garden, were the real sounds which my 

 fancy had changed to the drum and pipes of my Oolitic com- 

 panion. I once more looked at my watch, and though years 

 seemed to have elapsed since the spell began, I found the real 

 period to be but twenty-five minutes. 



This last act of observing the time threw me again off 

 my balance. I said, "Twenty-five minutes, twenty-five days, 

 twenty-five months, twenty-five years, twenty-five centuries, 

 twenty-five eons. Now I know it all ; I am the alchemist who 

 discovered the elixir of life in the dark ages, and I shall live for 

 ever; what is time to me? -Yes, that was the elixir I took 

 twenty-five minutes ago to experience a sensation, and there it 

 goes round the room/'' It made me giddy to see it whirl like a 

 wheel of which I was the centre. There was a bust of Milton 

 on the shelf which had changed to the face of Jacob Behmen, 

 and it sat on one of the spokes of the wheel, and smiled upon 

 me with such a smile of peace and satisfaction that I shouted 

 " Ha, ha ! " The wheel revolved ; it became brilliant with 

 fiery confiscations, and by degrees the centre where I sat 

 became the circumference, and I was whirled with it, my head 

 opening and shutting, so that I could feel the cold air upon my 

 brain ; my breath getting short and difficult, my chest falling 

 in as if crushed by a weight, and my stomach gnawed by rats. 

 This went on for ages, yet I knew all the while where I was, and 

 how the whole thing had happened • and actually got up, rang 

 the bell, and ordered some coffee, though not for an instant did 

 the illusion cease, nor, so far as I ever learnt, did the servant 

 who answered me discover any signs of my aberration. I 

 thought of the coffee as likely to relieve the sense of oppression 

 and disorder, which was now fast dispelling the illusion by its 

 reality. I felt my pulse, and tried to count it ■ I knew after- 

 wards that it was full and rapid, but at the time the throbs 

 were like the heaving of mountains, and the numbers would 



