Page:Popular medicine, customs and superstitions of the Rio Grande, John G. Bourke, 1894.pdf/16

134 back. Vouched for as remedial in all cases of "lame back," sprains, contusions, etc. (M. A.)

The sacasal is a bulbous plant, with straight, stiff, delicate branches, covered with tiny thorns, and much resembles, except in its pigmy size, the majestic "pitaya," or giant cactus. It bears a small red flower.

Bathe with a decoction of the white flowers of the "amargosa" (q. v.).

"Mariguan" is Cannabis Indica, Indian Hemp. It is used to aid in expulsion of the placenta, said to be of great value in making love-philters, and is frequently used with the toloachi, or stramonium. For that reason, it has been called the "loco," or crazy weed, but shares that designation with several other plants. A very fine canvas is made from the fibre of the stalk. The flower is small and white.

Many of the Mexicans add powdered mariguan to their cigarrito tobacco, or to their mescal. A bite of sugar, after taking mariguan in any form, intensifies its effects. Indian hemp is the basis of the hasheesh of the East.

Hasheesh is principally composed of the husks of the innocent hempseed, but after its preparation loses its innocence and becomes one of the greatest curses of the East. One report states that hasheesh disturbs the functions of the systems of digestion and circulation; that it injures the senses and motive powers; that it disturbs the cerebral functions. The phantoms seen by and the tendencies manifested in those who are intoxicated with hasheesh generally indicate the usual habits of thought and moral character of the intoxicated person, or the thoughts and passions by which the man was possessed on the day that he became intoxicated or at the moment in which the symptoms of poisoning began to make themselves manifest. Persons given to the use of hasheesh who become maniacs are apt to commit all sorts of acts of violence and murder.

Sometimes the intoxication of hasheesh impels the person under its influence to suicide or the commission of acts forbidden by morality. All authors are unanimous, basing their opinion on numerous observations among Eastern peoples, that the long use of hasheesh weakens the body and causes atropy, dulls the mind, and creates hypochondria, idiocy, and mania. Those who indulge in hasheesh have a fixed look without expression and an idiotic appearance. According to statistical information obtained from the lunatic asylums of Cairo and Bengal, the majority of the maniacs and idiots become such from the abuse of hasheesh. In most Eastern countries the importation, cultivation, and sale of hasheesh is forbidden, but it is used in large quantities, nevertheless.—Waverley Magazine.