And father, or cut off before his eyne Brother or child beloved fall miserably, Hewn by the pitiless sword, he sitting silent by. Drugs of such virtue did she keep in store, Some baneful. In that climate each doth own Leech-craft beyond what mortal minds attain; Since of Pæonian stock their race hath grown. She the good philter mixed to charm their pain, And bade the wine outpour, and answering spake again.1 Such is the story which has formed the basis of innumerable conjectures. The name of the drug administered by Helen signifies the negation of sorrow; and we learn that it grew in Egypt, and that its administration was followed by markedly soothing effects. Let us see whither these scanty indications as to its nature will lead us. Many of the ancients believed nepenthes to have been a kind of bugloss, the leaves of which, infused in wine, were affirmed by Dioscorides, Galen, and other authorities, to produce exhilarating effects. It is certain that in Plutarch's time the hilarity of banquets was constantly sought to be increased by this means. But this was done in avowed imitation of Helen's hospitable expedient. It was, in other words, a revival, not a survival; and possesses for us, consequently, none of the instructiveness of an unbroken tradition. A new idea was struck out by the Roman traveller, Pietro della Valle, who visited Persia and Turkey early in the seventeenth century. He suspects the true nepenthean draught to have been coffee! From Egypt, according to the antique narrative, it was brought by Helen; and by way of Egypt the best Mocha reached Constantinople, where it served to recreate the spirits, and pass the 1 Odyssey, iv. 219-232, Worsley's translation. heavy hours, of the subjects of Achmet. Of this hypothesis we may say, in the phrase of Sir Thomas Browne, that it is "false below confute." The next, that of honest Petrus la Seine, has even less to recommend it. His erudite conclusion was that in nepenthes the long-sought aurum potabile, the illusory ornament of the Paracelsian pharmacopoeia, made its first historical appearance! Egypt, he argued, was the birthplace of chemistry, and the great chemical desideratum from the earliest times had been the production of a drinkable solution of the most perfect among metals. Nay, its supreme worth had lent its true motive to the famous Argonautic expedition, which had been fitted out for the purpose of securing, not a golden fleece in the literal sense, but a parchment upon which the invaluable recipe was inscribed. The virtues of the elixir were regarded by the learned dissertator as superior to proof or discussion, in which exalted position we willingly leave them. More enthusiastic than critical, Madame Dacier looked at the subject from a point of view taken up, many centuries earlier, by Plutarch. Nepenthes, according to both these authorities, had no real existence. The effects ascribed to it were merely a figurative way of expressing the charms of Helen's conversation. But this was to endow the poet with a subtlety which he was very far from possessing. Simple and direct in thought, he invariably took the shortest way open to him in expression; and circuitous routes of interpretation will invariably lead astray from his meaning. It is clear accordingly that a real drug, of Egyptian origin, was supposed to have soothed and restored appetite to the guests of Menelaus a drug quite possibly known to Homer only by the rumour of its qualities, which he ingeniously turned to account for the purposes of his story. Now, since those qualities were undoubtedly narcotic, the field of our choice is a narrow one. We have only to inquire whether any, and, if so, what, preparations of the kind were anciently in use by the inhabitants of the Nile valley. Unfortunately our information does not go very far back. A certain professor of botany from Padua, however, named Prosper Alpinus, has left a remarkable account of his personal observations on the point towards the close of the sixteenth century. The vulgar pleasures of intoxication appear to have been (as was fitting in a Mohammedan country) little in request among all classes their place was taken by the raptures of solacing dreams and delightful visions artificially produced. The means employed for the purpose were threefold. There was first an electuary of unknown composition imported from India called bernavi. But this may at once be put aside, since the "medicine for a mind diseased" given by Polydamna to Helen, was, as we have seen, derived from a home-grown Egyptian herb. There remain of the three soothing drugs mentioned by Alpinus, hemp and opium. Each was extensively consumed; and the practice of employing each as a road to pleasurable sensations was already, in 1580, of immemorial antiquity. One of them was almost certainly the true Homeric nepenthes. We have only to decide which. The first, as being the cheaper form of indulgence, was mainly resorted to, our Paduan informant tells us, amongst the lower classes. From the leaves of the herb Cannabis sativa was prepared a powder known as assis, made up into boluses and swallowed, with the result of inducing a lethargic state of dreamy beatitude. Assis was fundamentally the same with the Indian bhang, the Arabic hashish-one of the mainstays of Oriental sensual pleasure. The earliest mention of hemp is by Herodotus. He states that it grew in the country! of the Scythians, that from its fibres garments closely resembling linen in texture were woven in Thrace, and that the fumes from its burning seeds furnished the nomad inhabitants of what is now Southern Russia, with vapour-baths, serving them as a substitute for washing. Marked intoxicating effects attended this original method of ablution. In China, from the beginning of the third century of our era, if not earlier, a preparation of hemp was used (it was said, with perfect success) as an anæsthetic; and it is mentioned as a remedy under the name of b’hanga, in Hindu medical works of probably still earlier date. Its identity with nepenthes was first suggested in 1839, and has since been generally acquiesced in. But there are two objections. The practice of eating or smoking hemp, for the sake of its exalting effects upon consciousness, appears to have originated on the slopes of the Himalayas, to have spread thence to Persia, and to have been transmitted farther west by Arab agency. It was not, then, primitively an Egyptian custom, and was assuredly unknown to the wife of Thôn. Moreover, hemp is not indigenous on the banks of the Nile. It came thither as an immigrant, most probably long after the building of the latest pyramid. Herodotus includes no mention of it in his curious and particular account of the country; and, which is still more significant, no relic of its textile use survives. Not a hempen fibre has ever been found in any of the innumerable mummy-cases examined by learned Europeans. The ancient Egyptians, it may then be concluded, were unacquainted with this plant, and we must look elsewhere for the chief ingredient of the comfort-bringing draught distributed by the daughter of Zeus. There is only opium left. If the case for identity fail here, nothing remains but to throw up the brief. But so extreme a measure is happily not needed. No serious discrepancy starts up to shake our belief that we have indeed reached the truth. All the circumstances correspond to ad miration the identification runs 66 on all fours." The physical effects indicated agree perfectly with those resulting from a sparing use of opium, They tend to just so much elevation of spirits as would impart a roseate tinge to the landscape of life. The intellect remains unclouded and serene. The Nemesis of indulgence, however moderate, is still behind the scenes. The exhibition of a soporific effect has even been seriously thought to have been designed by the poet, in the proposal of Telemachus to retire to rest shortly after the nepenthean cup has gone round; but so bald a piece of realism can scarcely have entered into the contemplation of an artist of such consummate skill. For ages past, Thebes in Egypt has witnessed the production of opium from the expressed juice of poppyheads. Six centuries ago, the substance was known in Western Europe as Opium Thebaicum, or the "Theban tincture." Prosper Alpinus states that the whole of Egypt was supplied, at the epoch of his visit, from Sajeth, on the site of the ancient hundredgated city. And since a large proportion of the upper classes were undisguised opium-eaters, opium-eaters, the demand must have been considerable. Now it was precisely in Thebes that Helen, according to Diodorus, received the sorrow-soothing drug from her Egyptian hostess; while the women of Thebes, and they only, still in his time preserved the secret of its qualities and preparation. Can we doubt that the ancient nepenthes was in truth no other than the medieval Theban tincture? Even stripping from the statement of Diodorus all historical value, its legendary signif cance remains. It proves, beyond question, the existence of a tradition localising the gift of Polydamna in a spot noted, from the date of the earliest authentic information on the subject, for the production of a modern equivalent. The inference seems irresistible that the two were one, and that, as De Quincey said, Homer is rightly reputed to have known the virtues of opium. NOTES BY A RAMBLER. I HAVE always thought that, if a traveller will keep his ears open and leave Nature alone, he may still find much to tell though he visits the most frequented spots abroad. “In travelling," said Dr. Johnson, "the great object of remark is human life!" People of all countries and all kinds are brought together, some of whom have not been civilized down to insignificance. My only rule in travelling is to shun the society of my countrymen. Of them I see quite enough at home. In fact, proud as all Englishmen will be of sharing in the honour of “Chatham's language" and "Wolfe's great name," yet, by our compatriots is it not possible at times to get just a little bored? Perhaps the foreigners are not all better, but variety is pleasing even in dulness; and if one must listen to platitudes how much less flat do they sound in French! It is astonishing with what pleasure two men can in that charming language impart to each other truths which have passed current in the world almost since the days of Adam. That enterprising Swiss landlord, who, in hopes of catching Englishmen, entitled his house Hôtel des Anglais et Pension Goddam would set his snare for me in vain. If my hotel is very full of my countrymen, I take my seat at the foreigners' table. The landlord always tries to sort his guests according to their nationalities, but this process I always for my own part resist. It has thus been my fortune to know people of many nations, and even to become very intimate with some of them. Into their thoughts I try to enter. The John Bull that is in me I keep in the background, being when with them much more anxious to learn than to teach. Others may say with old Meynell: "For anything I see, foreigners are fools." I prefer to see as much of them as possible, and to get them to talk, keeping notes of what I see and hear. In these notes let me hope there may be something found to interest my readers. He I witnessed a strange scene on the twenty-second day of last March, the Emperor William's ninetieth birthday. I was seated with my party in the midst of Germans. On one side of me were seven or eight ladies, all of them Vons; on the other, a family of German Jews. The head of it was a young man who had distinguished himself at the University, and had published a work of great merit. had deliberately chosen the life of a student in preference to business, and had broken down in health from too much study. His doctors gave him hopes that after six months' rest he might return to his University, and continue the course of lectures which he had begun to deliver. In sentiments he was the most German of Germans. His greatest regret was that, when he presented himself to serve his one year in the army, he had been rejected on account of defective sight. Prince Bismarck he looked upon as the greatest man living. He was full of enthusiasm about the Emperor's birthday. He presented us with blue corn-flowers and ribbons to wear, and he had a wreath of laurels woven to decorate the table. He even induced the cook to serve up a cream which should represent the German colours. entered into the spirit of the day, talked with the Germans of our common forefathers on the shores of the Baltic, spoke of Elsatz, Lothringen, and Karl the Great, and, in fact, as much as served us, our memory followed the teaching of Professor Freeman. We The dinner had scarcely begun when a great bowl of punch was brought in and set by the side of the eldest of the female Vons. "Ah!" said I to the amiable German lady who sat next to me, "this is what we call in England a loving cup. At our feasts also it circulates round the table. I have myself partaken of it with my Lord Mayor." (This I said with an air of impressive pride.) "It is delightful to see one more proof that the two great nations come from a common source." Unfortunately the proof failed, as proofs so often will fail, just when it seemed on the point of being complete. The vast Teutonic lovingcup stopped short of me, and then returned on the other side of the table to the elderly spinster Von. Not a drop reached the German Jews. The fish was served; and according to the German custom, it was time for the first toast. The Professor at once rose, and in a short, but spirited speech, gave the health of Kaiser Wilhelm. Some of the elderly Vons looked as sour as the sourest Rhenish wine; however, we all stood up, clinked glasses, and cried Hoch, though in tones that struck me as being subdued. Our English hurrahs, I thought, would have been far louder. A few minutes later the Professor in his loyal enthusiasm jumped up and hastened into the kitchen to inspect the cream, and see that the colours in it were set in proper order. In most parts of the room there was the buzz of conversation, but I had become suddenly aware that another speech was being made. The elderly female Von had ladled out glasses of punch for all the other Vons, and, just as if the Emperor's health had never been drunk, was giving it over again. A Jew might be German enough to be knocked on the head in fighting the Kaiser's battles, but was not German enough to be allowed to propose the Kaiser's health. The speech, which was soon over, was followed by the shrillest of Hochs. None of the guests but myself had noticed what was going on. They were startled by this almost unearthly cry, which was indeed eager and shrill when compared with the feeble cheer raised at the Professor's toast. The amazement of some English people seated at another table was excessive. Two young Oxonians who were present could not have looked more astonished had they seen the Vice-Chancellor and the two Proctors playing at leap-frog down the High Street. They were students of history. It was one of the best lessons in practical history, I thought, that they were likely ever to get they would understand the Judenhass, if nothing else. The young fellows were so much disgusted at the treatment shown to the Jews, that the next day they invited them to tea. They did not, moreover, seem much distressed when they learned in the morning that the elderly female Von was suffering from that head-ache which, even among good Christians and good Jew-haters, will sometimes follow on punch and patriotism. She Ludicrous though the scene was in many ways, yet at the time it was one of the most painful at which I have ever been present. Never had I with my own eyes seen painted in more hateful colours that insolent racehatred which has caused so much of the misery of mankind. Yet the chief offender was, in the narrow round that she daily paced, a good woman. was devoted in her care of a sick niece, whom she had adopted: her attendance at church and at churchbazaars was exemplary: her orthodoxy was beyond question. In the Lutheran version of the Acts of the Apostles perhaps the story of the trance into which Peter fell, and of the vision which he saw, has been accidentally omitted. If it has, a good deal of German intolerance is accounted for. "Are they Hebrews? So am I," kept sounding in my ears. It was a happy thing for Paul that his wanderings, wide as they were, did not lead him into the Fatherland. The Catholics, if they were not looked upon with aversion, yet were, I |