1839.] On the preparations of the Indian Hemp, or Gunjah. 737 



tobacco is placed in the pipe first, then a layer of the prepared Gunjah, 

 then more tobacco, and the fire above all. 



Four or five persons usually join in this debauch. The hookah is 

 passed round, and each person takes a single draught. Intoxication 

 ensues almost instantly ; and from one draught to the unaccustomed, 

 within half an hour ; and after four or five inspirations to those more 

 practised in the vice. The effects differ from those occasioned by the 

 Sidhee. Heaviness, laziness, and agreeable reveries ensue, but the 

 person can be readily roused, and is able to discharge routine occupa- 

 tions, such as pulling the punkah, waiting at table, &c. 



The Majoon, or Hemp confection, is a compound of sugar, butter, 

 flour, milk, and Sidhee or Bang. The process has been repeatedly 

 performed before me by Ameer, the proprietor of a celebrated place 

 of resort for Hemp devotees in Calcutta, and who is considered the 

 best artist in his profession. Four ounces of Sidhee and an equal 

 quantity of Ghee are placed in an earthen or well-tinned vessel, a pint 

 of water added, and the whole warmed over a charcoal fire. The 

 mixture is constantly stirred until the water all boils away, which is 

 known by the crackling noise of the melted butter on the sides of the 

 vessel ; the mixture is then removed from the fire, squeezed through 

 cloth while hot — by which an oleaginous solution of the active princi- 

 ples and colouring matter of the Hemp is obtained — and the leaves, 

 fibres, &c, remaining on the cloth are thrown away. 



The green oily solution soon concretes into a buttery mass, and is 

 then well washed by the hand with soft water so long as the water 

 becomes coloured. The colouring matter and an extractive substance 

 are thus removed, and a very pale green mass, of the consistence of 

 simple ointment, remains. The washings are thrown away ; — Ameer 

 says that these are intoxicating, and produce constriction of the throat, 

 great pain, and very disagreeable and dangerous symptoms. 



The operator then takes two pounds of sugar, and adding a little water 

 places it in a pipkin over the fire. When the sugar dissolves and froths, 

 two ounces of milk are added ; a thick scum rises and is removed — more 

 milk and a little water are added from time to time, and the boiling 

 continued about an hour, the solution being carefully stirred until it 

 becomes an adhesive clear syrup, ready to solidify on a cold surface ; 

 four ounces of tyre (new milk dried before the sun) in fine powder are 



