IN SINGAPORE 
15 
■with sugar and the ripe fruit of the plantain. Ci In Turkey it is 
usually taken in pills, and those who do so avoid drinking any wa¬ 
ter after having swallowed them, as this is said to produce violent co¬ 
lic ; but to make it more palatable, it is sometimes mixed with syrups 
or thickened juices; in this form, however it is less intoxicating and 
resembles mead. It is then taken with a spoon, or is dried in small 
cakes with the words (i Mash Allah” the “ Work of God’’ imprinted 
on them. When the dose of two or three drachms a day no long er 
produces the beatific intoxication so eagerly sought by the opiophagi, 
they mix the opium with Corosive sublimate, increasing the quantity 
of the latter till it reaches 10 grains a day. It then acts as a stimu¬ 
lant.” 
In addition to its being used in the shape of pills, it is frequently 
mixed with helebore and hemp and forms a mixture known by the 
name of Madgoon, whose properties are different from that of opium, 
and may account, in a great measure, for the want of similitude in 
the effects of the drug on the Turk and the Chinese. In Singapore 
where we have every Eastern nation indulging in this luxury we have 
it consequently used in various ways. The native of India, fresh 
from his country, prefers the mode there in use, and swallows the 
soul soothing pill, while the Chinese, with a- gusto that no worship¬ 
per of the meershaum can compete with, inhales the smoke not on¬ 
ly into his mouth, but into his lungs, where it becomes breath of his 
breath, and where, retained, it acts on the nervous fibres that are 
spread over the extensive membrane which lines every cell of the lungs, 
until, exhaled through nose and mouth, yea even in some cases thro’ 
ear and eye, it is replaced by another puff. 
Nothing on earth can equal the apparent quiet enjoyment of the 
opium smoker. As he enters the miserable scene of his future ecstacy 
he collects his small change, the labour or begging, or theft ol the day, 
with which he supplies Mmself with his quantity of Chandu. Then, 
taking the pipe which is furnished gratis, he reclines on a board co¬ 
vered with a mat, and, with his head resting on a wooden or bamboo 
pillow, he commences filling his pipe. As he entered his looks were 
the picture of misery, his eyes were sunk, his gait slouched, lus step 
