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See the "powder of marvellous virtue" in Boccaccio, iii., 8; and

iv., 10. Of these intoxicants, properly so termed, I shall have

something to say in a future page.

The use of Bhang doubtless dates from the dawn of civilisation,

whose earliest social pleasures would be inebriants. Herodotus

(iv. c. 75) shows the Scythians burning the seeds (leaves and

capsules) in worship and becoming drunken with the fumes, as do

the S. African Bushmen of the present day. This would be the

earliest form of smoking: it is still doubtful whether the pipe

was used or not. Galen also mentions intoxication by hemp.

Amongst Moslems, the Persians adopted the drink as an ecstatic,

and about our thirteenth century Egypt, which began the practice,

introduced a number of preparations to be noticed in the course

of The Nights.

[FN#120] The rubbish heaps which outlie Eastern cities, some

(near Cairo) are over a hundred feet high.