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DRCNet Library | Schaffer Library | Hemp (Marijuana) | Historical Information
A sampling of references to hemp (marijuana) throughout the ages.
Aesop's Fables, Aesop, 550bc
The Swallow And The Other Birds
It happened that a Countryman was sowing some hemp seeds in a field where a Swallow and some other birds were hopping about picking up their food. "Beware of that man," quoth the Swallow. "Why, what is he doing?" said the others. "That is hemp seed he is sowing; be careful to pick up every one of the seeds, or else you will repent it." The birds paid no heed to the Swallow's words, and by and by the hemp grew up and was made into cord, and of the cords nets were made, and many a bird that had despised the Swallow's advice was caught in nets made out of that very hemp. "What did I tell you?" said the Swallow.
"Destroy The Seed Of Evil, Or It Will Grow Up To Your Ruin."
Title: History Of Herodotus
Book: Fourth Book, Entitled Melpomene
Author: Herodotus
Part III
73. Such, then, is the mode in which the kings are buried: as for the people, when any one dies, his nearest of kin lay him upon a wagon and take him round to all his friends in succession: each receives them in turn and entertains them with a banquet, whereat the dead man is served with a portion of all that is set before the others; this is done for forty days, at the end of which time the burial takes place. After the burial, those engaged in it have to purify themselves, which they do in the following way. First they well soap and wash their heads; then, in order to cleanse their bodies, they act as follows: they make a booth by fixing in the ground three sticks inclined towards one another, ^1 and stretching around them woolen felts, which they arrange so as to fit as close as possible: inside the booth a dish is placed upon the ground, into which they put a number of red-hot stones, and then add some hemp-seed.
74. Hemp grows in Scythia: it is very like flax; only that it is a much coarser and taller plant: some grows wild about the country, some is produced by cultivation: ^2 the Thracians make garments of it which closely resemble linen; so much so, indeed, that if a person has never seen hemp he is sure to think they are linen, and if he has, unless he is very experienced in such matters, he will not know of which material they are.
Title: History Of The Conquest Of Mexico
Book: Book VII. (Conclusion.) Subsequent Career Of Cortes.
Author: Prescott, William H.
Chapter V. Cortes Revisits Mexico, Part I.
It was the place won by his own sword from the Aztecs previous to the siege of Mexico. It stood on the southern slope of the Cordilleras, and overlooked a wide expanse of country, the fairest and most flourishing portion of his own domain. He had erected a stately palace on the spot, and henceforth made this city his favorite residence. It was well situated for superintending his vast estates, and he now devoted himself to bringing them into proper cultivation. He introduced the sugar-cane from Cuba, and it grew luxuriantly in the rich soil of the neighboring lowlands. He imported large numbers of merino sheep and other cattle, which found abundant pastures in the country around Tehuantepec. His lands were thickly sprinkled with groves of mulberry-trees, which furnished nourishment for the silk-worm. He encouraged the cultivation of hemp and flax, and, by his judicious and enterprising husbandry, showed the capacity of the soil for the culture of valuable products before unknown in the land; and he turned these products to the best account, by the erection or sugar-mills, and other works for the manufacture of the raw material. He thus laid the foundation of an opulence for his family, as substantial, if not as speedy, as that derived from the mines. Yet this latter source of wealth was not neglected by him, and he drew gold from the region of Tehuantepec, and silver from that of Zacatecas. The amount derived from these mines was not so abundant as at a later day. But the expense of working them, on the other hand, was much less in the earlier stages of the operation, when the metal lay so much nearer the surface.
Title: Rollin's Ancient History: Egypt
Book: Chapter III.
Author: Rollin, Charles
Date: 1731
Sections IV - VII.
Section IV: Of The Egyptian Soldiers And War
"But let us imagine to ourselves a country where so great a difference is not made between the several conditions; where the life of a nobleman is not made to consist in idleness and doing nothing, but in a careful preservation of his liberty, that is, in a due subjection to the laws and the constitution; by a man's subsisting upon his estate without dependence on any one, and being contented to enjoy a little with liberty, rather than a great deal at the price of mean and base compliances: a country, where sloth, effeminacy, and the ignorance of things necessary for life, are held in just contempt, and where pleasure is less valued than health and bodily strength: in such a country, it will be much more for a man's reputation to plough, and keep flocks, than to waste all his hours in sauntering from place to place, in gaming, and expensive diversions." But we need not have recourse to Plato's commonwealth for instances of men who have led these useful lives. It was thus that the greatest part of mankind lived during near four thousand years; and that not only the Israelites, but the Egyptians, the Greeks, and the Romans, that is to say, nations the most civilized, and most renowned for arms and wisdom. They all inculcate the regard which ought to be paid to agriculture and the breeding of cattle; one of which (without saying any thing of hemp and flax, so necessary for our clothing,) supplies us, by corn, fruits, and pulse, with not only a plentiful but a delicious nourishment; and the other, besides its supply of exquisite meats to cover our tables, almost alone gives life to manufactures and trade, by the skins and stuffs it furnishes.
Title: Narrative Of The Voyages Round The World
Book: Chapter II: Narrative Of Captain Cook's First Voyage Round The World.
Author: Cook, Captain James
Date: 1779
Part V.
In Eaheinomauwe there are no quadrupeds but dogs and rats; at least, no other were seen by our voyagers, and the rats are so scarce, that they wholly escaped the notice of many on board. Of birds the species are not numerous; and of these no one kind, excepting perhaps the gannet, is exactly the same with those of Europe. Insects are not in greater plenty than birds. The sea makes abundant recompense for this scarcity of animals upon the land. Every creek swarms with fish, which are not only wholesome, but equally delicious with those in our part of the world. The Endeavour seldom anchored in any station, or with a light gale passed any place, that did not afford enough, with a hook and line, to serve the whole ship's company. If the seine was made use of, it seldom failed of producing a still more ample supply. The highest luxury of this kind, with which the English were gratified, was the lobster, or sea cray-fish. Among the vegetable productions of the country, the trees claim a principal place; there being forests of vast extent, full of the straightest, the cleanest, and the largest timber Mr. Cook and his friends had ever seen. Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander were gratified by the novelty, if not by the variety of the plants. Out of about four hundred species, there were not many which had hitherto been described by botanists. There is one plant that serves the natives instead of hemp and flax, and which excels all that are applied to the same purposes in other countries.
Title: Political Works Of Thomas Paine
Book: Common Sense
Author: Paine, Thomas
Part III
On The Present Ability Of America. With Some Miscellaneous Reflections.
In almost every article of defence we abound. Hemp flourishes even to rankness, so that we need not want cordage. Our iron is superior to that of other countries. Our small arms are equal to any in the world. Cannon we can cast at pleasure. Saltpetre and gunpowder we are every day producing. Our knowledge is hourly improving. Resolution is our inherent character, and courage hath never yet forsaken us. Wherefore, what is it that we want? Why is it that we hesitate? From Britain we can expect nothing but ruin. If she is once admitted to the government of America again, this continent will not be worth living in. Jealousies will be always arising, insurrections will be constantly happening; and who will go forth to quell them? Who will venture his life to reduce his own countrymen to a foreign obedience? The difference between Pennsylvania and Connecticut, respecting some unlocated lands, shows the insignificance of a British government, and fully proves that nothing but continental authority can regulate continental matters.
Title: Origin Of Species
Book: Chapter XII.
Author: Darwin, Charles
Date: 1859
Part II.
Single Centres Of Supposed Creation
Living birds can hardly fail to be highly effective agents in the transportation of seeds. I could give many facts showing how frequently birds of many kinds are blown by gales to vast distances across the ocean. We may safely assume that under such circumstances their rate of flight would often be thirty-five miles an hour; and some authors have given a far higher estimate. I have never seen an instance of nutritious seeds passing through the intestines of a bird; but hard seeds of fruit pass uninjured through even the digestive organs of a turkey. In the course of two months, I picked up in my garden twelve kinds of seeds, out of the excrement of small birds, and these seemed perfect, and some of them, which were tried, germinated. But the following fact is more important: the crops of birds do not secrete gastric juice, and do not, as I know by trial, injure in the least the germination of seeds; now, after a bird has found and devoured a large supply of food, it is positively asserted that all the grains do not pass into the gizzard for twelve or even eighteen hours. A bird in this interval might easily be blown to the distance of five hundred miles, and hawks are known to look out for tired birds, and the contents of their torn crops might thus readily get scattered. Some hawks and owls bolt their prey whole, and, after an interval of from twelve to twenty hours, disgorge pellets, which, as I know from experiments made in the Zoological Gardens, include seeds capable of germination. Some seeds of the oat, wheat, millet, canary, hemp, clover, and beet germinated after having been from twelve to twenty-one hours in the stomachs of different birds of prey; and two seeds of beet grew after having been thus retained for two days and fourteen hours. Fresh-water fish, I find, eat seeds of many land and water plants; fish are frequently devoured by birds, and thus the seeds might be transported from place to place. I forced many kinds of seeds into the stomachs of dead fish, and then gave their bodies to fishing-eagles, storks, and pelicans; these birds, after an interval of many hours, either rejected the seeds in pellets or passed them in their excrement; and several of these seeds retained the power of germination. Certain seeds, however, were always killed by this process.
Title: History Of Religions
Book: Religions Of China
Author: Foot Moore, George
Date: 1913
Chapter II
Moral And Political Philosophy
Wang Ch'ung, who wrote toward the end of the first century of our era, occupies in some respects a place apart in the history of Chinese thought. He may be described as a materialistic monist, and his physical philosophy somewhat resembles that of Epicurus and Lucretius. At the beginning there was a homogeneous vaporous or nebulous chaos. Out of this the lighter and the heavier elements "spontaneously" - that is, without intelligence or design - separated; the warm and light (elemental fire) above, the cold and dark, represented by water, below. So he adapts the old doctrines of Yang and Yin, fortifying himself by quotations from the Yih-king and the Li-ki. The Taoist Lieh-tsze developed a similar theory; but Wang Ch'ung, as pure materialist, has no use for the mystical Tao nor for the primal intelligence of Chu Hi and the Sung Confucianists. From the combination and spontaneous interaction of these principles all things arise. Man's body is of coarse matter, Yin; his vital spirit and intelligence are of the fiery nature of the Yang. Heaven - that is, the sky - is material just as truly as the earth, only of a different composition, and its operations are equally without design. It does not take note of men's doings to punish the bad and reward the good. Heaven does not speak, nor does it hear what men say; divination is absurd - how can the shell of a dead tortoise or the stalks of a withered weed elicit a response from Heaven! "Some people think that Heaven produces grain for the purpose of feeding mankind, and silk and hemp to clothe them. That would make Heaven man's farmer or mulberry-girl!" The philosopher is fond of pricking man's self-importance. To this vast frame of nature we are no more than insects crawling on a human body. The struggle for existence is proof that there is no wise and good purpose in creation. "If Heaven had produced its creatures on purpose, it ought to have taught them to love one another, and not to prey upon and destroy one another" - precisely the argument of Epicurus.
Title: History Of Religions
Book: Religions Of Japan
Author: Foot Moore, George
Date: 1913
Chapter I: Part II
To ward off ills caused by demons, especially the demons of disease, the ancient Japanese sought the protection of a particular group of gods, the Sahe no Kami, or "preventive deities", who are invoked in an old liturgical text to defend the worshippers against the "hostile and savage beings of the root country," such as the "hags of Hades" who pursued Izanagi. These deities were represented by phalli, often of gigantic size, which were set up along highways and especially at cross-roads to bar the passage against malignant beings who sought to pass. In the liturgy referred to, one of these gods is called "No Thoroughfare" (Kunado, or Funado), the name of the staff which Izanagi threw down to prevent his pursuing spouse from breaking out from Hades into the world above; two others are the prince and princess of the eight cross-roads. They had no temples, and were worshipped at the end of the sixth and twelfth months - the time of the semiannual lustration - and on occasion at other times, for example, on the outbreak of a pestilence. The phallic form of the end post of a balustrade or a bridge has a similar meaning; it keeps evil influence from passing. The apotropaic virtue of this symbol - a virtue which it has in many other countries, notably among the ancient Greeks - is due to the association of virility with manly strength, power to overcome invisible foes as well as visible, and to protect those in need of help. Standing as they did on the roadside and at cross-roads, these gods became the protectors of the wayfarers; travellers prayed to them before setting out on a journey and made a little offering of hemp leaves and rice to each one they passed. These gods had nothing to do, so far as the evidence shows, with fertility or the reproductive functions; no peculiar rites were observed in their worship, and however objectionable to the taste of a more refined age, the cult was in no sense immoral or conducive to immorality. In modern times, out of regard to the prejudices of Europeans who connected obscene notions with them, they have been generally removed from the roads, remaining only in out-of-the-way corners of the empire.
Title: History Of Religions
Book: Religions Of Japan
Author: Foot Moore, George
Date: 1913
Chapter II: Part II
From the 13th to the 15th of July an All-Souls feast is kept, at which time it is believed that the souls are permitted to return to their kindred and be entertained by them. A staging of bamboo canes is erected in one of the rooms of the house, on which food and lanterns are placed for the spirits, and a Buddhist priest reads a mass before them. On the first evening fires of hemp leaves are lighted before the entrance of the house, and incense strewed on the coals, as an invitation to the spirits. At the end of the three days the food that has been set out for the spirits is wrapped up in mats and thrown into a river. Dances of a peculiar kind are a conspicuous feature of the celebration, which is evidently an old Japanese custom; the Buddhist elements are adscititious. At this season the graves are decorated, and frequent visits are paid by the kinsfolk. For those who have no relatives living a mass is said in all the temples for "the hungry devils."
Title: Australia And The Islands Of The Sea
Author: Larkin, Dunton
Chapter XXVIII. The Balearic Isles.
Majorca is nearly square in form, the greatest distance from east to west being sixty miles and from north to south fifty. Its area is thirteen hundred square miles. The highest mountains of the group are those of Majorca, the loftiest peak attaining a height of forty-eight hundred feet. The climate is mild and agreeable, and the extremes of heat and cold are seldom of long duration. Fires are rarely required, except in the coldest weather.
The soil of these islands on the average is exceedingly fertile, and produces good crops of wheat, barley, olives, almonds, grapes, figs, oranges, beans, and hemp. Besides these, a great variety of other fruits and vegetables are grown for local consumption.
. . . . . . . . . .
Minorca is situated about twenty-seven miles northeast of Majorca and has an area of about two hundred and ninety square miles. The coast is much indented with bays on all sides except the south, and the shore in most places is bold and steep. It has several excellent harbors, the best one of which is Port Mahon, the capital of the island. The climate of Minorca is mild, but not so equable as that of Majorca. The soil in general is not very fertile, that on the plains being scanty and chalky. The chief products are wheat, barley, wine, oil, potatoes, hemp, and flax. Fruits of all kinds abound, including melons, pomegranates, figs, and almonds. Cattle, sheep, and goats are raised. Stone is plentiful, and a soft kind is much used in building. The population numbers about thirty-nine thousand.
Title: Discovery Of America
Book: Chapter VII: Mundus Novus
Author: Fiske, John
Date: 1892
Part VII
This adventure of Cabral's had interesting consequences. It set in motion the train of events which ended after some years in placing the name "America" upon the map. On May 14, 1501, Vespucius, who was evidently principal pilot and guiding spirit in this voyage under unknown skies, set sail from Lisbon with three caravels. It is not quite clear who was chief captain, but M. Varnhagen has found reasons for believing that it was a certain Don Nuno Manuel. ^1 The first halt was made on the African coast at Cape Verde, the first week in June; and there the explorers met Cabral on his way back from Hindustan. According to the letter attributed to Vespucius and published in 1827 by Baldelli, ^2 the wealth stowed away in Cabral's ships was quite startling. "He says there was an immense quantity of cinnamon, green and dry ginger, pepper, cloves, nutmegs, mace, musk, civet, storax, benzoin, porcelain, cassia, mastic, incense, myrrh, red and white sandalwood, aloes, camphor, amber," Indian hemp and cypress, as well as opium and other drugs too numerous to mention. "Of jewels he saw many diamonds, rubies, and pearls, and one ruby of a most beautiful colour weighed seven carats and a half, but he did not see all." ^3 Verily, he says, God has prospered King Emanuel.
Book: The Senate - 1789-1989
Author: Byrd, Robert C.
Affiliation: US Senate
Volume: Vol. 1
Date: 1989
Chapter 5 The Era of Good Feelings: 1817-1824
October 20, 1981.
. . . . Everywhere there were contradictions and incompatibilities. And yet all were loosely bound together - the Creole aristocrat of New Orleans, the liberal nationalist of South Carolina, the parvenu cotton-planter of Georgia, the hemp grower of Kentucky, the tobacco magnate of Virginia - all were bound together by the institution of slavery. The Tallmadge Amendment, like a powerful spell, conjured this loose bondage into a tightness and coherence it was never afterwards to lose.
Title: Australia And The Islands Of The Sea
Author: Larkin, Dunton
Chapter XXIX. Sardinia, Corsica, And Elba.
Next to Sicily, Sardinia is the largest of the islands in the Mediterranean Sea, having an area of nearly ninety-three hundred square miles. It lies directly south of Corsica, from which it is separated by the Strait of Bonifacio, a channel which in its narrowest part is only seven miles wide. The country is mostly mountainous, and some of the peaks of the central chain have an elevation of over six thousand feet. Many of these peaks are extinct volcanoes. The coasts are as a rule steep and rugged. There are many streams of water on the island, but only one of them is even partially navigable, and none of them has a long course.
The climate is mild, but in the low marshy lands, particularly in the neighborhood of some of the lakes, a deadly malaria prevails, especially in autumn. The inhabitants of these parts, who can afford to do so, migrate annually during the unhealthy months. Those who remain never leave their houses till an hour after sunrise, and return before sunset, carefully closing all doors and windows to prevent the entrance of the poisonous gas. Between the mountain ranges are several wide valleys noted for their beauty and fertility.
The principal products are wheat, barley, maize, oranges and other fruits, all of which are esteemed for their excellent quality. Grapes are extensively raised; but from carelessness in the process of making the wine, it is of an inferior quality. Olive trees are numerous. Cotton, linseed, flax, and hemp are also produced. Among the trees which grow on the mountain sides are cork, chestnut, oak, and pine, which form a considerable item in the export trade. The manufactories of gunpowder, salt, and tobacco are also of importance. Sardinia is rich in minerals, but as yet its mines have been little developed.
Book: The Senate - 1789-1989
Author: Byrd, Robert C.
Affiliation: US Senate
Volume: Vol. 1
Date: 1989
Chapter 6 The Era of Suspense: 1825-1829
Throughout the spring of 1828, debate on the tariff filled the House and Senate. Much of it was uninspired. Representative John Taylor complained that "day after day passes without any sensible advance in the public business. One dull prosing speech after another & arguments for the fiftieth time repeated are hashed up & dished in new covers." And one can picture the House as it looked to Taylor with, as historian Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., described it, members "lolling back in armchairs, laughing, coughing, spitting, rattling newspapers, while some poor speaker tried to talk above the din."
Through the din, Jacksonians obediently set about antagonizing the northern manufacturers with a variety of bedeviling amendments increasing duties on pig iron, flax, hemp, and so forth. Everyone supposed that the New England senators would join with the southern anti-protectionists to kill the measure. Daniel Webster, who had moved from the House to the Senate in the autumn elections, emerged, to the consternation of many, as one of the leaders of the pro-tariff forces. On May 9, he offered an extraordinary spectacle. He stood in front of his colleagues to explain why he was about to repudiate all the free-trade arguments he had made in the House in 1824. He was not eloquent, not the "great cannon loaded to the lips," but he was very honest. He offered no moral or intellectual justifications for the switch.
Book: The Senate - 1789-1989
Author: Byrd, Robert C.
Affiliation: US Senate
Volume: Vol. 1
Date: 1989
Chapter 19 Currency, Foreign Affairs, Party Structure: 1893-1900
Even as the debate raged, disillusioned Filipinos rose in revolt against the United States which, they believed, had promised them independence. The ruthless suppression of natives by American troops and the crushing of the independence movement intensified congressional soul-searching over this latest stage of American expansionism. The most eloquent defender of the president's policy was Indiana's new Republican senator, thirty-seven-year-old Albert Beveridge, who, with his maiden speech on the Philippine question, leapt to national fame. "The Philippines are ours forever," began Beveridge:
And just beyond the Philippines are China's illimitable markets. We will not retreat from either. We will not repudiate our duty in the archipelago. We will not abandon our opportunity in the Orient. We will not renounce our part in the mission of our race, trustees under God, of the civilization of the world. God . . . . has marked us as His chosen people, henceforth to lead in the regeneration of the world . . . . He has made us the master organizers of the world to establish system where chaos reigns. He has made us adept in government that we may administer government among savages and senile peoples.
Beveridge went on to enumerate with zest the riches of the islands: rice, coffee, sugar, coconuts, hemp, tobacco, "mountains of coal" - all awaiting development by American capital. He lightly brushed aside the objections of the natives. "It is barely possible that a thousand men in the archipelago are capable of self-government in the Anglo-Saxon sense."
[See A Narrow-Sighted Senator: Young Albert Beveridge of Indiana was an eloquent, outspoken imperialist on the Philippine question.]
Book: Our Country: Volume 1
Author: Lossing, Benson J., LL.D.
Volume: Vol. 1
Date: 1905
Chapter XIII
Northward from his anchorage after his vessel had entered New York Bay, Hudson saw a broad stream rising and falling with the tide, which the Indians told him came from beyond the pale blue mountain ranges in the distance. He believed it was a strait through which he might pass into the Indian Ocean so he sailed up the stream a few miles, and anchored. Natives came to him in canoes from the shores with fruits and vegetables, and friendly gestures. The men were athletic the women were graceful and the young ones often beautiful. All were half-clad in mantles made of skins or feathers depending from one shoulder and the waist, or in colored hempen tunics; and some of the women who came in the canoes, whose hair, long and black, hung loosely over their shoulders and bosoms, wore fillets ornamented with shells and the quills of the porcupine. They seemed anxious for friendly intercourse, but Hudson repelled and offended them.
Title: History Of The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire
Book: Chapter XLII: State Of The Barbaric World.
Author: Gibbon, Edward
Date: 1782 (Written), 1845 (Revised)
Part I.
To the east, the Turks invaded China, as often as the vigor of the government was relaxed: and I am taught to read in the history of the times, that they mowed down their patient enemies like hemp or grass; and that the mandarins applauded the wisdom of an emperor who repulsed these Barbarians with golden lances. This extent of savage empire compelled the Turkish monarch to establish three subordinate princes of his own blood, who soon forgot their gratitude and allegiance. The conquerors were enervated by luxury, which is always fatal except to an industrious people; the policy of China solicited the vanquished nations to resume their independence and the power of the Turks was limited to a period of two hundred years. The revival of their name and dominion in the southern countries of Asia are the events of a later age; and the dynasties, which succeeded to their native realms, may sleep in oblivion; since their history bears no relation to the decline and fall of the Roman empire.
Title: Rollin's Ancient History: History Of The Persians And Grecians
Book: Chapter II.
Author: Rollin, Charles
Date: 1731
Sections II And III.
Xerxes commanded two other bridges to be built, one for the army to pass over, and the other for the baggage and beasts of burden. He appointed workmen more able and expert than the former, who constructed it in the following manner: they placed three hundred and sixty vessels across the strait, some of them having three benches of oars, and others fifty oars a piece, with their sides turned towards the Euxine sea; and on the side that faced the Aegean sea they put three hundred and fourteen. They then cast large anchors into the water on both sides, in order to fix and secure all these vessels against the violence of the winds, and against the current of the water. On the east side they left three passages or vacant spaces between the vessels, that there might be room for small boats to pass easily, as there was occasion, to and from the Euxine sea. After this, upon the land on both sides they drove large piles into the earth, with huge rings fastened to them, to which were tied six vast cables, which went over each of the two bridges; two of which cables were made of hemp, and four of a sort of reeds, called, which were used in those times in the manufacture of cordage. Those that were made of hemp must have been of an extraordinary strength and thickness, since every cubit of those cables weighed a talent. The cables, laid over the whole extent of the vessels lengthwise, reached from one side of the sea to the other. When this part of the work was finished, quite over the vessels lengthwise, and over the cables we have been speaking of, they laid the trunks of trees, cut purposely for that use, and flat boats again over them, fastened and joined together, to serve as a kind of floor or solid bottom; all which they covered over with earth, and added rails or battlements on each side, that the horses and cattle might not be frightened with seeing the sea in their passage. Such was the construction of those famous bridges built by Xerxes.
Title: Travels Of Marco Polo
Book: Book First: Here The Book Begins; And First It Speaks Of The Lesser Armenia
Author: Polo, Marco
Part III
Chapter XXVI
Of A Province Called Khotan
Khotan is a province lying between northeast and east, and is eight days' journey in length. The people are subject to the great Khan, and are all worshippers of Mahommet. There are numerous towns and villages in the country, but Khotan, the capital, is the most noble of all, and gives its name to the kingdom. Everything is to be had there in plenty, including abundance of cotton, with flax, hemp, wheat, wine, and the like. The people have vineyards and gardens and estates. They live by commerce and manufactures, and are no soldiers.
Title: Travels Of Marco Polo
Book: Book Second: Of Kublai Khan, Great Khan Now Reigning, His Great Puissance
Author: Polo, Marco
Part IV
Chapter XXXII
Of The Charity Of The Emperor To The Poor
He also provides the poor with clothes. For he lays a tithe upon all wool, silk, hemp, and the like, from which clothing can be made; and he has these woven and laid up in a building set apart for the purpose; and as all artisans are bound to give a day's labor weekly, in this way the Khan has these stuffs made into clothing for those poor families, suitable for summer or winter, according to the time of year. He also provides the clothing for his troops, and has woolens woven for them in every city, the material for which is furnished by the tithe aforesaid. You should know that the Tartars, before they were converted to the religion of the idolaters, never practiced almsgiving. Indeed, when any poor man begged of them they would tell him, "Go with God's curse, for if He loved you as He loves me, He would have provided for you." But the sages of the idolaters, and especially the Bakshis mentioned before, told the great Khan that it was a good work to provide for the poor, and that his idols would be greatly pleased if he did so. And since then he has taken to do for the poor so much as you have heard.
Title: Travels Of Marco Polo
Book: Book Second: Of Kublai Khan, Great Khan Now Reigning, His Great Puissance
Author: Polo, Marco
Part IX
Now we will quit this matter and I will tell you of another city called Kwa-chau. But first I must mention a point I had forgotten. You must know that the vessels on this river, in going up stream, have to be tracked, for the current is so strong that they could not make head in any other manner. Now the towline, which is some three hundred paces in length, is made of nothing but cane. It is in this way: they have those great canes of which I told you before that they are some fifteen paces in length; these they take and split from end to end into many slender strips, and then they twist these strips together so as to make a rope of any length they please. And the ropes so made are stronger than if they were made of hemp.
. . . . ..
They burn the bodies of the dead. And when any one dies the friends and relations make a great mourning for the deceased, and clothe themselves in hempen garments, and follow the corpse playing on a variety of instruments and singing hymns to their idols. And when they come to the burning place, they take representations of things cut out of parchment, such as caparisoned horses, male and female slaves, camels, armor, suits of cloth of gold, and money, in great quantities, and these things they put on the fire along with the corpse, so that they are all burnt with it. And they tell you that the dead man shall have all these slaves and animals of which the effigies are burnt, alive in flesh and blood, and the money in gold, at his disposal in the next world; and that the instruments which they have caused to be played at his funeral, and the idol hymns that have been chanted, shall also be produced again to welcome him in the next world; and that the idols themselves will come to do him honor.
Title: Travels Of Marco Polo
Book: Book Third: Japan, The Archipelago, Southern India, The Coasts And Islands
Author: Polo, Marco
Part I
Chapter I
Of The Merchant Ships Of Manzi That Sail Upon The Indian Seas
The fastenings are all of good iron nails and the sides are double, one plank laid over the other, and caulked outside and in. The planks are not pitched, for those people do not have any pitch, but they daub the sides with other matter, deemed by them far better than pitch; it is this. You see they take some lime and some chopped hemp, and these they knead together with a certain wood oil; and when the three are thoroughly amalgamated, they hold like any glue. And with this mixture they paint their ships.
Title: True Stories Of The Great War
Book: The Tale Of The "Tara" Off The African Coast
Author: Freeman R. Lewis
Date: 1915
Translation: Bevir, Grace E.
The Tale Of The "Tara" Off The African Coast
I - Story Of The British Packet
And so they ran on. Fenton confessed to having had to "clout" one of
the quartermasters, because the latter had been so "swanky" as to maintain that the torpedo that sank the Tara was scarlet "when the bally thing was only red"; and Birkby admitted to having closed his argument for the negative on one of Lieutenant Tanner's Sunday texts with, "And if you still think that 'Love is the greatest thing in the world' - take that!" And as we slid up the Liffey in the drizzle of the Irish dawn, Barton just finished telling me how someone accused the first man to sight the rescuing motors with eating the "Arabs' hemp and 'seeing' things,'" adding that the two were circling each other on tottering legs, looking for an opening, when the bout was interrupted by the arrival of the Red Cross ambulances. "Half a minute later," he concluded, "the two of 'em was both guzzlin' over the same jam-tin."
Title: World Civilizations: The Postclassical Era
Book: Chapter 19: Spread Of Chinese Civilization - Korea, Japan, And Vietnam
Author: Stearns, Peter N.;Adas, Michael;Schwartz, Stuart B.
Date: 1992
The Era Of Warrior Dominance
Despite the chaos and suffering of the warlord period, there was much economic and cultural growth. Most of the daimyos clearly recognized the necessity of building up their petty states if they were to be strong enough to survive in the long run. Within the domains of the more able daimyos, attempts were made to stabilize village life by introducing regular tax collection, supporting the construction of irrigation systems and other public works, and building strong rural communities. Incentives were offered to encourage the settlement of unoccupied areas, and new tools, the greater use of draft animals, and new crops - especially soybeans - contributed to the well-being of the peasantry in the better-run domains. Peasants were also encouraged to produce items such as silk, hemp, paper, dyes, and vegetable oils, which were highly marketable and thus potential sources of household income. Daimyos vied with each other to attract merchants to their growing castle towns, and a new and quite wealthy commercial class emerged as the purveyors of goods for the military elite and the intermediaries in trade between Japan and overseas areas, especially China. As in medieval Europe, guild organizations for both craftsmen (carpenters, thatchers, smiths, potters, etc.) and merchants were strong in this era. They helped provide social solidarity and group protection in a time of political breakdown and insecurity.
Title: World Civilizations: Industrialization And Western Global Hegemony
Book: Chapter 30: Industrialization And Imperialism
Author: Stearns, Peter N.; Adas, Michael;Schwartz, Stuart B.
Date: 1992
Introduction
The Making Of The European Global Order
In the industrial era, from roughly 1800 onward, the things that Europeans sought in the outside world as well as the source of the insecurities that drove them there changed dramatically. Raw materials - metals, vegetable oils, dyes, cotton, and hemp - needed to feed the machines of Europe, not spices or manufactured goods, were the main products the Europeans sought overseas. Industrialization made Europe for the first time the manufacturing center of the world, and overseas markets for machine-made European products became a key concern of those who pushed for colonial expansion. Christian missionaries, by then as likely to be Protestant as Roman Catholic, still sought to win converts overseas. But unlike the rulers of Portugal and Spain in the early centuries of expansion, European leaders in the industrial age rarely took initiatives overseas to promote Christian proselytization. In part this reflected the fact that western Europe itself was no longer seriously threatened by the Muslims or any other non-European people. The fears that fueled European imperialist expansion in the industrial age arose from internal rivalries between the European powers. Overseaspeoples might resist the European advance, but the Europeans feared each other far more than even the largest non- European empires.
Title: World Civilizations: Industrialization And Western Global Hegemony
Book: Chapter 30: Industrialization And Imperialism
Author: Stearns, Peter N.; Adas, Michael;Schwartz, Stuart B.
Date: 1992
Patterns Of Dominance: Continuity And Change
As increasing numbers of the colonized peoples were drawn into the production of crops or minerals intended for export to Europe, colonized areas in Africa, India, and Southeast Asia were reduced to dependence on the industrializing European economies. Roads and railways were built primarily to facilitate the movement of farm produce and raw materials from the interior of colonized areas to port areas where they could be shipped to Europe. Benefiting from Europe's technological advances, mining sectors grew dramatically in most of the colonies. Vast areas that were previously uncultivated or (more commonly) had been planted in food crops were converted to the production of commodities - such as cocoa, palm oil, rubber, and hemp - in great demand in the markets of Europe and, increasingly, the United States.
Title: Australia And The Islands Of The Sea
Author: Larkin, Dunton
Chapter XXXIX. The Philippine Islands.
The Philippine Islands form an important group in the northern part of the Malay Archipelago. They belong to Spain, and, next to Cuba, form its most important colonial possession. There are over four hundred islands in the group, the two largest being Luzon and Mindanao.
. . .. .
Among plants cultivated for use are the palms, hemp, coffee tree, indigo, tobacco, cloves, nutmeg, and red and black pepper vines. Rice, maize, wheat, yams, sweet potatoes, and many kinds of fruits are also raised.
Title: World Civilizations: Industrialization And Western Global Hegemony
Book: Chapter 32: Ottoman Empire, Islamic Heartlands, And Qing China
Author: Stearns, Peter N.; Adas, Michael;Schwartz, Stuart B.
Date: 1992
Western Intrusions And The Crisis In The Arab Islamic Heartlands
Though Muhammad Ali's efforts to introduce reforms patterned after Western precedents were not confined to the military, they fell far short of a fundamental transformation of Egyptian society. To shore up his economic base, he ordered the Egyptian peasantry to expand their production of cotton, hemp, indigo, and other crops that were in growing demand in industrial Europe. Efforts to improve Egyptian harbors and extend irrigation works met with some success and led to modest increases in the revenues that could be devoted to the continuing modernization of the military. Attempts to reform education were ambitious but limited in what was actually achieved. Many of the most significant innovations in schooling were linked to Muhammad Ali's military projects. His frequent schemes to build up an Egyptian industrial sector were eventually frustrated by the opposition of the European powers and by the intense competition from imported, Western-manufactured goods.
Title: Wealth Of Nations
Book: Book II
Author: Smith, Adam
Date: 1776
Chapter V.
Of the Different Employment of Capitals
It is of more consequence that the capital of the manufacturer should reside within the country. It necessarily puts into motion a greater quantity of productive labour, and adds a greater value to the annual produce of the land and labour of the society. It may, however, be very useful to the country, though it should not reside within it. The capitals of the British manufacturers who work up the flax and hemp annually imported from the coasts of the Baltic, are surely very useful to the countries which produce them. Those materials are a part of the surplus produce of those countries which, unless it was annually exchanged for something which is in demand there, would be of no value, and would soon cease to be produced. The merchants who export it, replace the capitals of the people who produce it, and thereby encourage them to continue the production; and the British manufacturers replace the capitals of those merchants.
. . . . . .
The foreign goods for home-consumption may sometimes be purchased, not with the produce of domestick industry, but with some other foreign goods. These last, however, must have been purchased either immediately with the produce of domestick industry, or with something else that had been purchased with it; for the case of war and conquest excepted, foreign goods can never be acquired, but in exchange for something that had been produced at home, either immediately, or after two or more different exchanges. The effects, therefore, of a capital employed in such a round-about foreign trade of consumption, are, in every respect, the same as those of one employed in the most direct trade of the same kind, except that the final returns are likely to be still more distant, as they must depend upon the returns of two or three distinct foreign trades. If the flax and hemp of Riga are purchased with the tobacco of Virginia, which had been purchased with British manufactures, the merchant must wait for the returns of two distinct foreign trades before he can employ the same capital in re-purchasing a like quantity of British manufactures. If the tobacco of Virginia had been purchased, not with British manufactures, but with the sugar and rum of Jamaica which had been purchased with those manufactures, he must wait for the returns of three. If those two or three distinct foreign trades should happen to be carried on by two or three distinct merchants, of whom the second buys the goods imported by the first, and the third buys those imported by the second, in order to export them again, each merchant indeed will in this case receive the returns of his own capital more quickly; but the final returns of the whole capital employed in the trade will be just as slow as ever. Whether the whole capital employment in such a round-about trade belong to one merchant or to three, can make no difference with regard to the country, though it may with regard to the particular merchants. Three times a greater capital must in both cases be employed, in order to exchange a certain value of British manufactures for a certain quantity of flax and hemp, than would have been necessary, had the manufactures and the flax and hemp been directly exchanged for one another. The whole capital employed, therefore, in such a round-about foreign trade of consumption, will generally give less encouragement and support to the productive labour of the country, than an equal capital employed in a more direct trade of the same kind.
Title: Wealth Of Nations
Book: Book IV
Author: Smith, Adam
Date: 1776
Chapter VIII, Section I.
Conclusion of the Mercantile System
The first bounties of this kind were those granted, about the beginning of the present century, upon the importation of naval stores from America. Under this denomination were comprehended timber fit for masts, yards, and bowsprits; hemp; tar, pitch, and turpentine. The bounty, however, of one pound the ton upon masting-timber, and that of six pounds the ton upon hemp, were extended to such as should be imported into England from Scotland. Both these bounties continued without any variation, at the same rate, till they were severally allowed to expire; that upon hemp on the 1st of January 1741, and that upon masting-timber at the end of the session of parliament immediately following the 24th June 1781.
………
The third bounty of this kind was that granted (much about the time that we were beginning sometimes to court and sometimes to quarrel with our American colonies) by the 4 Geo. III. chap. 26. upon the importation of hemp, or undressed flax, from the British plantations. This bounty was granted for twenty-one years, from the 24th June 1764, to the 24th June 1785. For the first seven years it was to be at the rate of eight pounds the ton, for the second at six pounds, and for the third at four pounds. It was not extended to Scotland, of which the climate (although hemp is sometimes raised there, in small quantities and of an inferior quality) is not very fit for that produce. Such a bounty upon the importation of Scotch flax into England would have been too great a discouragement to the native produce of the southern part of the united kingdom.
…………………..
The seventh and last bounty of this kind, was that granted by the 19 Geo. III. chap. 37. upon the importation of hemp from Ireland. It was granted in the same manner as that for the importation of hemp and undressed flax from America, for twenty-one years, from the 24th June 1779, to the 24th June 1800. This term is divided, likewise, into three periods of seven years each; and in each of those periods, the rate of the Irish bounty is the same with that of the American. It does not, however, like the American bounty, extend to the importation of undressed flax. It would have been too great a discouragement to the cultivation of that plant in Great Britain. When this last bounty was granted, the British and Irish legislatures were not in much better humour with one another, than the British and American had been before. But this boon to Ireland, it is to be hoped, has been granted under more fortunate auspices, than all those to America.
Title: Autobiography Of Benvenuto Cellini
Book: Book First
Author: Cellini, Benvenuto
Date: 1566
Translation: Symonds, John Addington
Part XVII
So I was taken into a gloomy dungeon below the level of a garden, which swam with water, and was full of big spiders and many venomous worms. They flung me a wretched mattress of course hemp, gave me no supper, and locked four doors upon me. In that condition I abode until the nineteenth hour of the following day. Then I received food, and I requested my jailers to give me some of my books to read. None of them spoke a word, but they referred my prayer to the unfortunate castellan, who had made inquiries concerning what I said. Next morning they brought me an Italian Bible which belonged to me, and a copy of the Chronicles of Giovanni Villani. When I asked for certain other of my books, I was told that I could have no more, and that I had got too many already.
[Footnote 1: This mention of an Italian Bible shows that we are still in the days before the Council of Trent.]
Title: Apocrypha, The
Book: Ecclesiasticus
Author: Various
Date: 1611
Chapter 40
Great travail is created for every man,
And a heavy yoke is upon the sons of Adam,
From the day of their coming forth from their mother's womb,
Until the day for their burial in the mother of all things.
The expectation of things to come, and the day of death,
^1 Trouble their thoughts, and cause fear of heart;
From him that sitteth on a throne of glory,
Even unto him that is humbled in earth and ashes;
From him that weareth purple and a crown,
Even unto him that is clothed with a hempen frock.
There is wrath, and jealousy, and trouble, and disquiet,
And fear of death, and anger, and strife;
And in the time of rest upon his bed
His night sleep doth change his knowledge.
A little or nothing is his resting,
And afterward in his sleep, as in a day of keeping watch,
He is troubled in the vision of his heart,
As one that hath escaped from the front of battle.
In the very time of his deliverance he awaketh,
And marvelleth that the fear is nought.
Title: Castilian Days
Book: A Miracle Play
Author: Hay, John
Date: 1903
The sinister procession moves on. The audience, which had been somewhat cheered by the prompt and picturesque punishment inflicted upon the inhospitable Samuel, was still further exhilarated by the spectacle of the impenitent traitor Gestas, staggering under an enormous cross, his eyes and teeth glaring with abject fear, with an athletic Roman haling him up to Calvary with a new hempen halter.
Title: Travels Of Marco Polo
Book: Book First: Here The Book Begins; And First It Speaks Of The Lesser Armenia
Author: Polo, Marco
Part V
Then there is another kind of devotees called Sensin, who are men of extraordinary abstinence after their fashion, and lead a life of such hardship as I will describe. All their life long they eat nothing but bran, which they take mixed with hot water. That is their food: bran, and nothing but bran; and water for their drink. 'Tis a lifelong fast! so that I may well say their life is one of extraordinary asceticism. They have great idols, and plenty of them; but they sometimes also worship fire. The other idolaters who are not of this sect call these people heretics - Patarins as we should say - because they do not worship their idols in their own fashion. Those of whom I am speaking would not take a wife on any consideration. They wear dresses of hempen stuff, black and blue, and sleep upon mats; in fact their asceticism is something astonishing. Their idols are all female, that is to say, they have women's names.
Title: Wealth Of Nations
Book: Book I
Author: Smith, Adam
Date: 1776
Chapter X, Section II.
In Scotland there is no general law which regulates universally the duration of apprenticeships. The term is different in different corporations. Where it is long, a part of it may generally be redeemed by paying a small fine. In most towns, too, a very small fine is sufficient to purchase the freedom of any corporation. The weavers of linen and hempen cloth, the principal manufactures of the country, as well as all other artificers subservient to them, wheel-makers, reel-makers, &c. may exercise their trades in any town corporate without paying any fine. In all towns corporate all persons are free to sell butcher's meat upon any lawful day of the week. Three years is in Scotland a common term of apprenticeship, even in some very nice trades; and in general I know of no country in Europe in which corporation laws are so little oppressive.
Title: Benjamin Franklin Experiments With Electricity
Author: Bigelow, John;Franklin, Benjamin
Date: 1747
"It was not till the summer of 1752 that he was enabled to complete his grand and unparalleled discovery by experiment. The plan which he had originally proposed was to erect, on some high tower or other elevated place, a sentry-box, from which should rise a pointed iron rod, insulated by being fixed in a cake of resin. Electrified clouds passing over this would, he conceived, impart to it a portion of their electricity, which would be rendered evident to the senses by sparks being emitted when a key, the knuckle, or other conductor was presented to it. Philadelphia at this time afforded no opportunity of trying an experiment of this kind. While Franklin was waiting for the erection of a spire, it occurred to him that he might have more ready access to the region of clouds by means of a common kite. He prepared one by fastening two cross sticks to a silken handkerchief, which would not suffer so much from the rain as paper. To the upright stick was affixed an iron point. The string was, as usual, of hemp, except the lower end, which was silk. Where the hempen string terminated, a key was fastened. With this apparatus, on the appearance of a thunder-gust approaching he went out into the commons, accompanied by his son, to whom alone he communicated his intentions, well knowing the ridicule which, too generally for the interest of science, awaits unsuccessful experiments in philosophy. He placed himself under a shed, to avoid the rain; his kite was raised, a thunder-cloud passed over it, no sign of electricity appeared. He almost despaired of success, when suddenly he observed the loose fibres of his string to move toward an erect position. He now presented his knuckle to the key and received a strong spark. How exquisite must his sensations have been at this moment! On this experiment depended the fate of his theory. If he succeeded, his name would rank high among those who had improved science; if he failed, he must inevitably be subjected to the derision of mankind, or, what is worse, their pity, as a well-meaning man, but a weak, silly projector. The anxiety with which he looked for the result of his experiment may be easily conceived. Doubts and despair had begun to prevail, when the fact was ascertained, in so clear a manner that even the most incredulous could no longer withhold their assent. Repeated sparks were drawn from the key, a vial was charged, a shock given, and all the experiments made which are usually performed with electricity.
Title: Buddhist Doctrine
Author: Buddhist Sources
Date: c500bc
Translation: Warren, Henry Clarke
Good And Bad Karma
Translated from the Samyutta-Nikaya
On a certain occasion The Blessed One was dwelling at Savatthi in Jitavana monastery in Anathapindika's Park. Then drew near king Pasenadi the Kosalan, at an unusual time of day, to where The Blessed One was; and having drawn near and greeted The Blessed One, he sat down respectfully at one side. And king Pasenadi the Kosalan being seated respectfully at one side, The Blessed One spoke to him as follows:
"Pray, whence have you come, great king, at this unusual time of day?"
"Reverend Sir, a householder who was treasurer in Savatthi has just died leaving no son, and I have come from transferring his property to my royal palace; and, Reverend Sir, he had ten million pieces of gold, and silver beyond all reckoning. But this householder, Reverend Sir, would eat sour gruel and kanajaka, and the clothes he wore were made of hemp . . ., and the conveyance in which he rode was a broken-down chariot with an umbrella of leaves."
Title: Sir Francis Drake's Famous Voyage Round The World
Author: Francis Pretty, One of Drake's Gentlemen at arms.
Date: 1580
Sir Francis Drake's Famous Voyage Round The World, Part I.
The Famous Voyage of Sir Francis Drake into the South Sea, and therehence about the whole Globe of the Earth, begun in the year of our Lord 1577.
The fifth of June, being in 43 degrees towards the pole Arctic, we found the air so cold, that our men being grievously pinched with the same, complained of the extremity thereof; and the further we went, the more the cold increased upon us. Whereupon we thought it best for that time to seek the land, and did so; finding it not mountainous, but low plain land, till we came within 38 degrees towards the line. In which height it pleased God to send us into a fair and good bay, with a good wind to enter the same. In this bay we anchored; and the people of the country, having their houses close by the water's side, shewed themselves unto us, and sent a present to our General. When they came unto us, they greatly wondered at the things that we brought. But our General, according to his natural and accustomed humanity, courteously intreated them, and liberally bestowed on them necessary things to cover their nakedness; whereupon they supposed us to be gods, and would not be persuaded to the contrary. The presents which they sent to our General, were feathers, and cauls of network. Their houses are digged round about with earth, and have from the uttermost brims of the circle, clifts of wood set upon them, joining close together at the top like a spire steeple, which by reason of that closeness are very warm. Their bed is the ground with rushes strowed on it; and lying about the house, [they] have the fire in the midst. The men go naked; the women take bulrushes, and kemb them after the manner of hemp, and thereof make their loose garments, which being knit about their middles, hang down about their hips, having also about their shoulders a skin of deer, with the hair upon it. These women are very obedient and serviceable to their husbands.
Title: Life Of King Henry The Fifth, The
Book: Act III.
Author: Shakespeare, William
Date: 1599
Scene VI. The English Camp in Picardy.
Pist. Fortune is Bardolph's foe, and frowns on him;
For he hath stolen a pax, and hanged must a' be,
A damned death!
Let gallows gape for dog, let man go free
And let not hemp his wind-pipe suffocate.
But Exeter hath given the doom of death
For pax of little price.
Therefore, go speak; the duke will hear thy voice;
And let not Bardolph's vital thread be cut
With edge of penny cord and vile reproach:
Speak, captain, for his life, and I will thee requite.
Title: Holy Grail From The Book Of King Arthur
Book: Seventeenth Book
Author: Traditional
Date: c1175
Translation: Malory, Thomas
Part I Chapter I
How Sir Galahad Fought At A Tournament, And How He Was Known Of Sir Gawaine And Sir Ector De Maris
And when the ship was ready in the sea to sail, the lady let make a great bed and marvellous rich, and set her upon the bed's head, covered with silk, and laid the sword at the feet, and the girdles were of hemp, and therewith the king was angry. Sir, wit ye well, said she, that I have none so high a thing which were worthy to sustain so high a sword, and a maid shall bring other knights thereto, but I wot not when it shall be, nor what time. And there she let make a covering to the ship, of cloth of silk that should never rot for no manner of weather.
Title: Poems And Songs Of Robert Burns
Book: Part III
Author: Burns, Robert
Date: 1786
Part III
Death And Dying Words Of Poor Mailie, The Author's Only Pet Yowe., The
An Unco Mournfu' Tale
"Tell him, if e'er again he keep
As muckle gear as buy a sheep-
O, bid him never tie them mair,
Wi' wicked strings o' hemp or hair!
But ca' them out to park or hill,
An' let them wander at their will:
So may his flock increase, an' grow
To scores o' lambs, an' packs o' woo'!
Title: Poems And Songs Of Robert Burns
Book: Part X
Author: Burns, Robert
Date: 1786
Part X
Halloween^1
"Our stibble-rig was Rab M'Graen,
A clever, sturdy fallow;
His sin gat Eppie Sim wi' wean,
That lived in Achmacalla:
He gat hemp-seed,^11 I mind it weel,
An'he made unco light o't;
But mony a day was by himsel',
He was sae sairly frighted
That vera night."
[Footnote 11: Steal out, unperceived, and sow a handful of hemp-seed, harrowing it with anything you can conveniently draw after you. Repeat now and then: "Hemp-seed, I saw thee, hemp-seed, I saw thee; and him (or her) that is to be my true love, come after me and pou thee." Look over your left shoulder, and you will see the appearance of the person invoked, in the attitude of pulling hemp. Some traditions say, "Come after me and shaw thee," that is, show thyself; in which case, it simply appears. Others omit the harrowing, and say: "Come after me and harrow thee."-R.B.]
Then up gat fechtin Jamie Fleck,
An' he swoor by his conscience,
That he could saw hemp-seed a peck;
For it was a' but nonsense:
The auld guidman raught down the pock,
An' out a handfu' gied him;
Syne bad him slip frae' mang the folk,
Sometime when nae ane see'd him,
An' try't that night.
He marches thro' amang the stacks,
Tho' he was something sturtin;
The graip he for a harrow taks,
An' haurls at his curpin:
And ev'ry now an' then, he says,
"Hemp-seed I saw thee,
An' her that is to be my lass
Come after me, an' draw thee
As fast this night."
Title: Poems And Songs Of Robert Burns
Book: Part XLV
Author: Burns, Robert
Date: 1786
Part XLV
The Epitaph
Epistle From Esopus To Maria
From those drear solitudes and frowsy cells,
Where Infamy with sad Repentance dwells;
Where turnkeys make the jealous portal fast,
And deal from iron hands the spare repast;
Where truant 'prentices, yet young in sin,
Blush at the curious stranger peeping in;
Where strumpets, relics of the drunken roar,
Resolve to drink, nay, half, to whore, no more;
Where tiny thieves not destin'd yet to swing,
Beat hemp for others, riper for the string:
From these dire scenes my wretched lines I date,
To tell Maria her Esopus' fate.
Title: I Promessi Sposi Or The Betrothed
Book: Chapter III
Author: Manzoni, Alessandro
Date: 1826
Chapter III
'Well,' continued Agnese, 'he is a man! I have seen more than one person, bothered like
a chicken in a bundle of hemp, and who did not know where to put his head, and after being
an hour nose to nose with the Dr Azzecca - Garbugli, (take good care you don't call him
so) - I have seen him, I say, make a joke of it. Take these four capons, poor creatures!
whose necks I ought to have wrung for tonight's supper, and carry them to him; because we
must never go empty - handed to these gentlemen. Relate to him all that has happened, and
you'll see he will tell you, in a twinkling, things which would not come into our heads if
we were to think about them for a year.'
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