Chap. III. 



AN OPIUM-SMOKER. 



51 



silent night, when all around was sunk in repose, his 

 craving for the stimulant was beyond his feeble powers 

 of resistance. Often and often during this passage, 

 when I happened to awake during the night, I could 

 see his little lamp burning, and could smell the sick- 

 ening fumes as they curled about the roof of the 

 boat. 



The effects which the immoderate use of opium 

 had produced upon this man were of the most melan- 

 choly kind. His figure was thin and emaciated, his 

 cheeks had a pale and haggard hue, and his skin had 

 that peculiar glassy polish by which an opium-smoker 

 is invariably known. His days were evidently num- 

 bered, and yet, strange to tell, this man tried to con- 

 vince others and himself also that he was smoking 

 medicinally, and that the use of opium was indispen- 

 sable to his health. As I looked upon him in these 

 moments of excitement I could not help feeling what 

 a piteous object is man, the lord of Creation, and 

 noblest work of God, when sensual pleasures and 

 enjoyments take such a hold upon him as they had 

 upon this poor opium-smoker. 



During the first day all the passengers looked upon 

 me as one of themselves, and I fancied I had become 

 a very fair Chinaman ; but my coolie, who was a 

 silly, talkative fellow, imagined he was in possession 

 of a secret, and doubtless felt the weight of it rather 

 uncomfortable. I observed him once or twice in 

 close conversation with one of the boatmen, and it 

 turned out afterwards that he told this man, as a 

 great secret of course, that I was a foreigner, — one 



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