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CHAPTER XI
STRANGE SWALLOWS
" Wormwood ! "—The little green fairy—All right when you
know it, but
The hour of absinthe—Awful effects—
Marie Corelli—St. John the Divine—Arrack and bhang not
to be encouraged—Plain water—The original intoxicant—
Sacred beverage of the mild Hindu—Chi Chi—Kafta, an
Arabian delight—Friends as whisky agents—Effervescent
Glenlivet—The peat-reek—American bar-keeper and his
best customer—" Like swallerin' a circ'lar saw and pullin' it
up again "—Castor-oil anecdote—" Haste to the wedding !"
We will now proceed to consider certain weird
potations, some of which I have personally tested,
others of which not all the wealth of Golconda,
Peru, and Throgmorton Street would induce me
to sample of my own accord, and all of which
bring more or less trouble in their wake.
Gall and wormwood have been closely allied
from time immemorial; and it is in accordance
with the eternal fitness of things that the con
sumption of
Absinthe
should be almost entirely confined to France.
And what is absintheMerely alcohol, in