es; and his
chief solace, if it be comfort indeed to have the senses benumbed
periodically, or daily, and then wake up to the consciousness of loss
and with a feeling of despair betimes, was in his opium pipe, which he
smoked fifty times a day at the cost of half a dollar, the offering
of charity, the dole received from his pitying countrymen or the
interested traveller who might come to his forlorn abode. But what
a fascination the opium drug has for the Chinaman, and not for him
alone, but for children of other races--for men and women who, when
under its spell, will sell honour and sacrifice all that is dear in
life, and even forego the prospect and the blessed hope of entering at
last into the bliss of the heavenly world! But what is opium, what its
parentage and history? The Greeks will tell you it is their opion or
opos, the juice of the poppy, and the botanist will point out the
magic flower for you as the Papaver Somniferum, whose home was
originally in the north of Europe and in Western Asia; but now, just
as the tribes of the earth have spread out into many lands, so has the
poppy which has brought much misery as well as blessing to men,
found its way into various quarters of the globe, particularly those
countries which are favoured with sunny skies. It is cultivated in
Turkey, India, Persia, Egypt, Algeria and Australia, as well as in
China. I now recall vividly the beautiful poppy fields at Assiut,
Esneh and Kenneh, by the banks of the Nile, in which such subtle
powers were sleeping potent for ill or good as employed by man for
deadening his faculties or soothing pain in reasonable measure. These
flowers were of the reddish kind. In China they have the white, red
and purple varieties, which, as you gaze on them, seem to set the
fields aglow with fire and attract your gaze as if you were enchained
to the spot by an unseen power. The seeds are sown in November and
December, in rows which are eighteen inches apart, and four-fifths
of the opium used in China is the home-product, though it was not
so formerly. In March or April the poppy flowers according to the
climate, the soil, and the location. The opium is garnered in April or
May, and prepared for the market. The Chinese merchant values most of
all the Shense drug, while the Ynnan and the Szechuen drugs take next
rank. The opium is generally made into flat cakes and wrapped up in
folds of white paper. It is said that it was introduced into China in
the rei