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Updated: May 10, 2025
Suddenly every trace of civilisation fell from my companions as if it had been a garment. At Aden, shaven and beturbaned, Arab fashion, now they threw off all dress save the loin cloth, and appeared in their dark morocco. Mohammed filled his mouth with a mixture of coarse Surat tobacco and ashes, the latter article intended, like the Anglo-Indian soldier's chili in his arrack, to "make it bite."
These returns are delivered to the rajas in the form of a present, and the cask of arrack they and their principal people never cease to drink, as long as a drop of it remains.
As an article of traffic amongst the natives it is not considerable, nor have they the art of distilling arrack, the basis of which is molasses, along with the juice of the anau or of the coconut palm in a state of fermentation. Both however are manufactured by Europeans.*
The very smell of arrack would at any time drive me from the barrack, and many a night have I slept in the open air, to avoid the fumes arising from its use, as well as the drunken jargon of those who drank it to excess.
At evening time Moti Guj would wash down his three hundred pounds' weight of green food with a quart of arrack, and Deesa would take a share and sing songs between Moti Guj's legs till it was time to go to bed. Once a week Deesa led Moti Guj down to the river, and Moti Guj lay on his side luxuriously in the shallows, while Deesa went over him with a coir-swab and a brick.
Stir in a quart of rum or of the best whiskey. Two scruples of flowers of benjamin, steeped in a quart of rum, will make an infusion which much resembles the arrack of the East Indies. It should be kept in a bottle, and a little of it will be found to impart a very fine and fragrant flavour to punch made in the usual manner. Is made as above, omitting one half of the rum or whiskey.
It is enough for me to tell you that we made the voyage to Achin, in the island of Sumatra, first; and from thence to Siam, where we exchanged some of our wares for opium, and for some arrack; the first a commodity which bears a great price among the Chinese, and which, at that time, was very much wanted there: in a word, we went up to Susham; made a very great voyage; were eight months out; and returned to Bengal: and I was very well satisfied with my adventure.
He knows very well that free trade would, as its first result, lead to the importation of whole cargoes of arrack, which would be carried over the country and exchanged for coffee.
For a while his health improved; but he was even more unreasonable than formerly: hardly was he convalescent than several times a day he sent to inquire if he could drink some arrack, take a little opium, or indulge in some of his more favourite dishes. It is not astonishing that relapse quickly followed: though I showed him the danger of the course he was pursuing, he persisted in it.
He brought, in particular, seventeen large casks of arrack, as big as butts, besides smaller quantities, a quantity of rice, and abundance of fruits, mangoes, pompions, and such things, with fowls and fish.
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