D a t u r a F h r c x .
the name of Bangue. Rumphius, v. 208, tab. lxxvii. gives an
ample account of it, he fays, “ it is fometimes taken in a liquid
“ form, mixed with Areca and Pinanga.” The leaves are often
fmoked, mixed with tobacco; and i f the objedt is pleafing
ileep, nutmegs, and the richeft fpices, are added. It is properly
enough called by the Malayes, Jingi, or the herb of fools.
Alander * fpeaks o f another fort of Bangue, prepared from the
leaves o f the Hibifcus Sabdarisfa. This he fays, on the authority
o f Herman, is alfo in ufe in India. This vegetable is an
attual poifon ; for we know that the water in which the hemp
plant is foaked, to prepare it for manufadture, is moft fatal.
By the 33d. c. 17, Henry VIII. there is a prohibition o f its being
foaked in any pond or running ftream, on account of its being
fo deftrudtive to cattle; and i f drank, when ftrongly infufed,
aits almoft inftantaneoufly mortal to the human race.
T h e Datura ferox, Acojla 288, may be added as another
plant ufed for the fame intoxicating purpofes. Mr. Ives fays,
that i f the Indians are in poifeflion of any fecret poifon, it is of
the feeds o f this fpecies. According to Acojla, it brings on the
fame kind o f phrenetic joy as the preceding. The droll Buttler,
in his Hudibras, part iii. canto i. 1. 321, mentions this plant under
the name of Dewtry.
Make lechers and their punks with Dewtry,
Commit phantaftical advowtry.
» Inebricntia, Amsen, Acad, vi. 184. *
I t
mm
I t is faid to caufe fuch an alienation of mind, as to tran-
fport a man from the objedt about him, and place before
him imaginary fcenes, fo that any thing may be done with
him, or before him, without his regarding it then, or remembering
it afterwards*. Thieves are faid to give it to people
they wiih to rob, and women to their hufbands in order to
commit before them unfeen advowtry not phantajlical. This
alfo is the poifon or philtre which, by proportioning the dofe,
is fuppofed to kill or fafcinate in a certain ipace; a tale long
iince exploded.
As I am on the fubjedt o f vegetables, I may fay, that the Sue- A loe.
cotrine aloe is found in Bengal, and in moft parts o f India.
T h e Eupborbium antiquorum is frequent, efpecially in Ceylon,
and produces; on incifion, the true gum.
R i c e is cultivated with great fuccefs in Bengal', the low wet Rice.
lands are finely adapted to its culture. It is Town in the begin-,
ning o f May, immediately before the. rainy.feafon commences.
The firft crop is got in about the latter end o f .September-, the
fecond, and greateft, about the end of. December. Its nature is
fuch, that its fuccefs depends on a foil immerfed in water; were
the periodical rains to ceafe, Bengal would become a defert. In
the year 1769 there was fo very long a drought, that there was
almoft a general failure of the crops o f rice, the foie fupport of
the common Indians. . A famine, unheard of in ftory, was the
confequence, above two millions of people perifhed in the moft
dreadful manner; their end was exemplary, no riots enfued,
they died with refignation by thoufands, in the ftreets, or the
* See Gray’s Hudibras, part iii. canto i. note ©n 1. 321, 322.
V o l . II. H h highways,
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