A portion of Richard Burton's
Translation of
The Arabian Nights
....Abrizah the King was greatly occupied with love of her and burnt with
desire of her night and day; and every night, he would go in to her and
converse with her and pay his court to her, but she gave him no answer,
only saying, "O King of the age! I have no desire for men at this present."
When he saw her withdraw from him, his passion waxed hotter and his longing
and pining increased until, when weary of this, he summoned his Wazir
Dandan and, opening his very heart to him, told him of his love for Princess
Abrizah, daughter of Hardub, and informed him how she refused to yield to
his wishes and how desire for her was doing him to die, for that he could
get no grace of her. The Wazir, hearing these words, said to the King, "As
soon as it is dark night, take thou a piece of Bhang the measure of a
miskal, about an ounce, and go in to her and drink somewhat of wine with
her. When the hour of ending the carousal shall draw near, fill her a last
cup and dropping therein the Bhang, give it to her to drink, and she will
not reach her sleeping-chamber ere the drug take effect on her. Then do
thou go in to her and take thy will of her; and such is my advice." "Thy
rede is aright," quoth the King, and seeking his treasury, he took thence a
piece of concentrated Bhang, if an elephant smelt it he would sleep from
year to year. This he put in his bosom-pocket and waited till some little
of the night went by, when he betook himself to the palace of Princess
Abrizah, who seeing him stood up to receive him; but he bade her sit down.
So she sat down, and he sat by her, and he began to talk with her of wine
and wassail, whereupon she furnished the carousing-table and placed it
before him. Then she set on the drinking vessels and lighted the candles
and ordered to bring dried fruits and sweetmeats and all that pertaineth to
drinking. So they fell to tippling and the King ceased not to pledge her
till drunkenness crept into her head; and seeing this he took out the bit
of Bhang from his pocket and, holding it between his fingers, filled a cup
with his own hand and drank it off. Then filling a second he said, "To thy
companionship!"; and dropped the drug into her cup, she knowing naught of
it. She took it and drank it off; the she rose and went to her
sleeping-chamber. He waited for less than an hour till he was assured that
the dose had taken effect on her and had robbed her of her senses, when he
went in to her and found her thrown on her back: and she had doffed her
petticoat trousers and the air raised the skirt of her shift and discovered
what was between her thighs. When the King saw the statew of things and
found a lighted candle at her head and another at her feet, shining upon
what her thighs enshrined he took leave of his five senses for lust and
Satan seduced him and he could not master himself, but put off his trousers
and fell upon her and abated her maidenhead. Then he rose off her and went
to one of her women, by name Marjánah, and said, "Go in to thy lady
and speak with her." So she went in to her mistress and found her lying
on her back insensible, with the blood running down to the calves of her
legs, whereupon she took a kerchief and wiped away the blood and lay by her
that night. As soon as Almighty Allah brought the dawn, the handmaid
Marjanah washed her mistress's hands and feet and brought rose-water and
bathed her face and mouth with it, whereupon she sneezed and yawned and cast
up from her inside that bit of Bhang like a
bolus.
* Then she revived and washed her
hands and mouth and said the Marjanah, "Tell me what hath befallen me." So
she told her what had passed and how she had found her, lying on her back,
with the blood running down, wherefore she knew that King Omar bin
al-Nu'uman had lain with her and had undone her and taken his will of her.
At this she grieved with exceeding grief and retired into privacy, saying to
her damsels, "Deny me to whoso would come in to me and say to him that I am
ill, till I see what Allah will do with me."....
* Here the "Bhang" (almost a generic term
applied to hellebore, etc.) may be hyoscyamus or henbane. Yet there are
varieties of Cannabis, such as the Dakha of South Africa, capable of most
violent effect. I found the use of the drug well known to the negroes of
the Southern United States and of the Brazil, although few of their owners
had ever heard of it.
The Sputnik Drug Information Zone
http://nepenthes.lycaeum.org/
