is taste and
very injurious to his health, but after a little pressing first one
and then another touches the chief's hand in two or three places,
muttering the names of Deos (gods), friends or others, and drains the
draught. Each after drinking washes the chief's hand in a dish of
water which a servant offers, and after wiping it dry with his own
scarf makes way for his neighbour. After this refreshment the chief
and his guests sit down in the public hall, and amuse themselves
with chess, draughts or games of chance, or perhaps dancing-girls
are called in to exhibit their monotonous measures, or musicians and
singers, or the never-failing favourites, the Bhats and Charans. At
sunset the torch-bearers appear and supply the chamber with light,
upon which all those who are seated therein rise and make obeisance
towards the chief's cushion. They resume their seats, and playing,
singing, dancing, story-telling go on as before. At about eight the
chief rises to retire to his dinner and his hookah, and the party is
broken up." There is little reason to doubt that the Rajputs ascribed
a divine character to opium and the mental exaltation produced by
it, as suggested in the article on Kalar in reference to the Hindus
generally. Opium was commonly offered at the shrines of deified Rajput
heroes. Colonel Tod states: "_Umul lar khana_, to eat opium together,
is the most inviolable, pledge, and an agreement ratified by this
ceremony is stronger than any adjuration." [478] The account given by
Forbes of the manner in which the drug was distributed by the chief
from his own hand to all his clansmen indicates that the drinking
of it was the renewal of a kind of pledge or covenant between them,
analogous to the custom of pledging one another with wine, and a
substitute for the covenant made by taking food together, which
originated from the sacrificial meal. It has already been seen that
the Rajputs attached the most solemn meaning and virtue to the act
of partaking of the chief's food, and it is legitimate to infer that
they regarded the drinking of a sacred drug like opium from his hand
in the same light. The following account [479] of the drinking of
healths in a Highland clan had, it may be suggested, originally the
same significance as the distribution of opium by the Rajput chief:
"Lord Lovat was wont in the hall before dinner to have a kind of
herald proclaiming his pedigree, which reached almost up to Noah,
and showed each man