he
whole tissue of my nervous fibre, each thrill helping to divest my frame
of its earthy and material nature, until my substance appeared to me no
grosser than the vapors of the atmosphere, and while sitting in the calm
of the Egyptian twilight, I expected to be lifted up and carried away by
the first breeze that should ruffle the Nile. While this process was going
on, the objects by which I was surrounded assumed a strange and whimsical
expression. My pipe, the oars which my boatmen plied, the turban worn by
the captain, the water-jars and culinary implements, became in themselves
so inexpressibly absurd and comical, that I was provoked into a long fit
of laughter. The hallucination died away as gradually as it came, leaving
me overcome with a soft and pleasant drowsiness, from which I sank into a
deep, refreshing sleep.

My companion and an English gentleman, who, with his wife, was also
residing in Antonio's pleasant caravanserai--agreed to join me in the
experiment. The dragoman of the latter was deputed to procure a sufficient
quantity of the drug. He was a dark Egyptian, speaking only the _lingua
franca_ of the East, and asked me, as he took the money and departed on
his mission, whether he should get hasheesh "_per ridere, a per dormire?_"
"Oh, _per ridere_, of course," I answered; "and see that it be strong and
fresh." It is customary with the Syrians to take a small portion
immediately before the evening meal, as it is thus diffused through the
stomach and acts more gradually, as well as more gently, upon the system.
As our dinner-hour was at sunset, I proposed taking hasheesh at that time,
but my friends, fearing that its operation might be more speedy upon fresh
subjects, and thus betray them into some absurdity in the presence of the
other travellers, preferred waiting until after the meal. It was then
agreed that we should retire to our room, which, as it rose like a tower
one story higher than the rest of the building, was in a manner isolated,
and would screen us from observation.

We commenced by taking a tea-spoonful each of the mixture which Abdallah
had procured. This was about the quantity I had taken in Egypt, and as the
effect then had been so slight, I judged that we ran no risk of taking an
over-dose. The strength of the drug, however, must have been far greater
in this instance, for whereas I could in the former case distinguish no
flavor but that of sugar and rose leaves, I now found the taste