Madad-Walah
This article is an extract from
THE TRIBES and CASTES of BENGAL. Ethnographic Glossary. Printed at the Bengal Secretariat Press. 1891. . |
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Madad-Walah
Madad was prepared and sold by Muhammadans long before Chandu was known; but at the present day the Chandu-Walah, who is expert in preparing opium in all forms, is the only person who makes and retails it.
Madad is prepared as follows. Crude opium is boiled in a pan into which one end of a hempen wisp is put, while the other is dropped into an empty pot. The boiling liquid is then gradually strained off, the hemp retaining all sedimentary matters. It is afterwards allowed to cool, and reboiled, when Pan leaves moistened and made crisp by a dry heat are thrown in fine pieces into the decoction. By means of two sticks the chopped leaves are thoroughly mixed with the opium, and as the liquid congeals each fragment of leaf has a small quantity of opium adherring to it, which being removed and made into balls the size of small bullets, are wrapped in fine paper and sold for one paisa each.
The method of smoking Madad is quite different from that of Chandu. The smoker puts a ball into a broken pipe bowl, and with a pair of bamboo pincers applies live charcoal, while, as the opium burns, he rapidly inhales the smoke. To prevent his losing any of the effects, the inveterate smoker keeps in his month a sweetmeat, or a pith drop soaked in syrup. After taking two or three pipes of Madad the seasoned smoker indulges in a pipe of tobacco, by so doing heightening and prolonging the reverie.
Shops for the sale and smoking of Madad are to be met with in all the villages of the interior; but in the city of Dacca its use is confined to private houses.
