Vintage News Articles & Finds

[billycw]

The Immortal Cannabis Goddess continued...


In the 'Yiyuan' by Liu Jingshu, we find Magu's story as a mortal...

"During Qin times, there was a Temple to Maid Mei 梅 – or, as one version has it, Maid Ma – beside a lake. When alive, she had possessed arts of the Dao. She could walk on water in her shoes. Later she violated the laws of the Dao, and her husband, out of anger, murdered her and dumped her body in the lake. Following the current, it floated on the waves until it reached the [present site of] the temple. A subordinate shaman directed that she be encoffined but not immediately buried. Very soon a square, lacquered coffin appeared in the shrine hall. [From then on], at the end and beginning of each lunar month, people there could make out through the fog an indistinct figure, wearing shoes."

Magu Temple in the Yue Gu Temple complex, Yantai - Shangdong Province, China (Magu's gravestone can be seen on the left)


In a continued story from the 'Yiyuan' by Liu Jingshu, we find that after her mortal death, Magu would become Immortal. Going further then her title of Protector of women, to protecting all life...

"Fishing and hunting were prohibited in the area of the temple, and violators would always become lost or drown. Shamans said that it was because the Maid had suffered a painful death and hates to see other beings cruelly killed."

In 1966, China's cultural revelution almost wiped out all traces of Magu destroying countless shrine's and temples worshiping her. Only one temple survived untouched...

Magu Temple, her protected temple by the lake...

"When you see a deer, Magu is near" (a Chinese saying)

Immortal Magu with deer and peach tree, Ming or Qing dynasty; Silk tapestry (1575-1725)


In the mountainous area around where Magu was said to live, a festival is still held every year. On the 7th day of the 7th month, a harvest festival is held in Magu's honor. Legend has it that the harvest festival has been held since “when the world was green”.

very wide leaf "feral hemp", Taoist temple, China

 

[billycw]

A Guangzhou farmer sitting in his field smoking a pipe, 1900

 

[billycw]

Woman carries Ganja bundle on her head while pulling resin from her hands, Himalayas, India.

Photography Andrea de Franciscis

 

[geneva_sativa]

she looks happy !

 

[billycw]

she looks happy !

She has a head full of herb and doesn't have to tediously clip for 12 hours on end, I'd be happy too

Camille Dolard Self-portrait as a hookah smoker in an oriental setting, 1845. Yes 1845!

 

[Green Squall]

I think I recognize that picture of the woman with cannabis on her head from a National Geographic article?

 

[billycw]

I think I recognize that picture of the woman with cannabis on her head from a National Geographic article?

Yes, its from the National Geographic article called 'See Inside the Himalayan Villages That Grow Cannabis'. They captured some amazing shots.

National Geographic, Himalayan village, rubbing charas

 

[billycw]

This is from a interview of a Russian special forces officer named Sergei Dubko (Intelligence, 56 DSB, Logar Province) talking about the War against Afghanistan. He was stationed inside Afghanistan between 1984-1985.


In the discussion he was talking about attacking caravans in the mountains of Afghanistan.


Sergei-
-...After we cleared the caravans, heroin was lying in all the tents, all over the place. And anyone who wanted to try it did... Most of the company tried it, more than fifty percent, that's for sure. ...

And actually, we used another local drug - charas. We smoked it often, usually scored in a cigarette. Or burned and breathed through a tube (hookah). Or through the chillum. It's like a pitcher of water, it looks like a teapot. A cigarette is inserted into the nose, and you suck it through the tube so that this smoke passes through the water. It goes very hard.


Interviewer-
- And it was everywhere? Everyone smoked? And the officers too?


Sergei-
- Yes, almost everyone. And the officers also dabbled in it.


Interviewer-
-And how did you relax after such wild mental loads: death, blood, children torn...


Sergei-
- Charas. Yes... Mostly we smoked charas. When the operation was serious, whether someone was caught or something, the commanders actually closed their eyes to it, and one could even say that they allowed us to smoke charas...

Russian soldiers in Afghanistan looking at score of Charas, 1984/85

 

[Betterhaff]

When in Rome…

 

[billycw]

Ann Arbor Sun,
March 17-31, 1972
Article: Smoke Dope Everywhere!


"Smoke dope, it's your duty to future generations, turn the world on, it's your duty to the universe."

 

[billycw]

"Barry Inman, pot hater, wrecks a pot garden near Willits, CA." August 7, 1985

 

[billycw]

Old school Hashischin Arthur Rimbaud, shares his love for the wake and bake and hashish...



Morning of Drunkenness

O my good! O my beautiful! Atrocious fanfare where I won’t stumble! enchanted rack whereon I am stretched! Hurrah for the amazing work and the marvelous body, for the first time! It began amid the laughter of children, it will end with it. This poison will remain in all our veins even when, as the trumpets turn back, we’ll be restored to the old discord. O let us now, we who are so deserving of these torments! let us fervently gather up that superhuman promise made to our created body and soul: that promise, that madness! Elegance, knowledge, violence! They promised us to bury the tree of good and evil in the shade, to banish tyrannical honesties, so that we might bring forth our very pure love. It began with a certain disgust and ended—since we weren’t able to grasp this eternity all at once—in a panicked rout of perfumes.

Laughter of children, discretion of slaves, austerity of virgins, horror in the faces and objects of today, may you be consecrated by the memory of that wake. It began in all loutishness, now it’s ending among angels of flame and ice.

Little eve of drunkenness, holy! were it only for the mask with which you gratified us. We affirm you, method! We don’t forget that yesterday you glorified each one of our ages. We have faith in the poison. We know how to give our whole lives every day.

Behold the time of the Assassins.

By Arthur Rimbaud

 

[billycw]

"The Hand Machine sows from four to eight acres per hour... doing the work in a very superior manner. This Machine is unquestionably the agriculturist, one of the most important and valuable inventions of the day."

Illustration from The hand machine sower, page 278 of "A business directory of the subscribers to the new map of Maine : with a brief history and description of the state" (1862)

 

[billycw]

"A huge group lines up outside the Board of Health offices in New York for licenses to sell alcohol shortly after the repeal of Prohibition." April 14, 1933

 

[billycw]

'Sandringham Road, UK - 1983'


"Everybody knew that drug dealing went on in Sandringham Road. It was common knowledge that police officers took money and drugs from dealers. They would pocket the money and supply the drugs to other dealers. The Line is riddled with what we call “informers”, people who work for the police. It was as if the only people who were safe were the dealers, because, one way or the other, they were useful to the police. Anybody who was in the police’s way would be arrested. Innocent people who just happened to be in the area were planted with drugs to make it look as if the police were doing their job."

Hugh Prince in "Fighting the Lawmen" 1992

'Fighting The Lawmen', HACKNEY COMMUNITY DEFENCE ASSOCIATION

 

[billycw]

"Entrance to the tomb of Yung Lo" China, Peking Beijing - 1907 - Photograph by Herbert Ponting

 

[billycw]

group of girls pretending to smoke, 1909

 

[billycw]

Untitled watercolor by Anon, 1820. Captioned - A European, probably Sir David Ochterlony (1758-1825), in Indian dress, smoking a hookah and watching a nautch in his house at Delhi.


A British Surgeon puts Ganjah on the Map

In 1788 a young British surgeon took a job with The East Indian Company and shipped to the far off land of India. Little did he know what he would discover and bring back to the masses, Ganjah...

Whitelaw Ainslie would practice medicine in India for the next 27 years. As the Superintending Surgeon in Madras, he found the time to pursue his passion in writing. He chose a daunting task for his first topic. Whitelaw wanted to compile a list of all the drugs and medicines used in India most of which were unknown at the time back in England.

Inside cover of The 'Materia Medica of Hindoostan, and Artisan's and Agriculturist's Nomenclature' by Whitelaw Ainslie in 1813

Title page to The 'Materia Medica of Hindoostan, and Artisan's and Agriculturist's Nomenclature' by Whitelaw Ainslie in 1813



In 1813 he would publish his findings in his first book, The 'Materia Medica of Hindoostan, and Artisan's and Agriculturist's Nomenclature'. In his book he would list Gunjah for the first time bringing the drug to the attention of the medical community back home in England and around the world.

Listing Gunjah as a recreational drug that is smoked, drank and ate, he would also list the ingredient for its medical treatments.

page 80 from The 'Materia Medica of Hindoostan, and Artisan's and Agriculturist's Nomenclature' by Whitelaw Ainslie in 1813


"Ganjah is the Tamool name of the plant from which Bangie (bhang) and majum are prepared;
The leaves are frequently added to tobacco, and smoaked, to increase its intoxicating power; they are also sometimes, given in cases of diarrhea, and, in conjunction with turmeric, onions, and warm gingilie oil, are made into an application for painful, swelled, and protruded piles. In Malays this plant is called Ginji Lacki Lucki; it is the Dalengi Cansjava of the Hort. Mal."


Whitelaw found Ganjah so important in his findings he chose to also include its preparations for both medical and recreational use in edibles, in there own passage under 'majum'.

page 86


"Majum This electuary is much used by the Mahometans, particularly the more dissolute, who take it internally to intoxicate, and ease pain; and not unfrequently, from an overdose of it, produce a temporary mental derangement. The chief ingredients employed in making it, are, Gunjah-leaves, milk, ghee, poppy seeds, flowers of the thorn apple, the powder of the nux vomica, and sugar.

Another inebriating preparation, made with the leaves of the Gunjah plant, is Bang or Bengie. It is in a liquid form, and is chiefly drank by the Mahometans and Mahrattas; the Tomools and Telingas, who are comparatively temperate and circumspect, use it but little."

 

[billycw]

A British Surgeon puts Ganjah on the Map continued...



Returning to England 2 years later, Whitelaw would spend his retirement years writing for pleasure. Now as a veteran author with time to research, he wanted to go into more detail of his findings with Indian drugs.

In 1826 Whitelaw published his second book cataloging Indian drugs titled 'Materia Indica, or Some Account of Those Articles Which Are Employed by the Hindoos and Other Eastern Nations, in Their Medicine, Arts, and Agriculture'.

Title page to 'Materia Indica' by Whitelaw Ainslie in 1826



In his new book, he would expand his section about ganja speculating origin and throwing in some rather odd observations.

pages 108-111 in 'Materia Indica' by Whitelaw Ainslie in 1826

 

[billycw]

A British Surgeon puts Ganjah on the Map continued...



In the Materia Indica, Whitelaw also separated and expanded on his sections for edible preparations, including Bhang and Majum.

Majum, Pages 176 & 177 in 'Materia Indica' by Whitelaw Ainslie in 1826

Banghie, page 39 in 'Materia Indica' by Whitelaw Ainslie in 1826



Whitelaw would also add one more section for cannabis in his new book... A little understood section for the prized Charas or as he called it Cheris...

Cheris, pages 73 & 74 in 'Materia Indica' by Whitelaw Ainslie in 1826



Although cannabis was known to exist in some circles already, Whitelaw was the first to bring this little known herb Ganja to the masses!