Date: Mon, 1 Jul 1996 00:09:57 +0100
From: Chris Whitehouse <chrisw@venus.co.uk>
Message-Id: <199606302309.AAA26245@venus.co.uk>
Subject: re: TWC-L Introduction
first just a little babbling - perhaps the effects of a youth spent in
haunts of coot & fern... self-discipline willingly attempted - feel
free to remonstrate at will :)
Vash wrote:
> My own [interests] (outside of herbs) include gardening, poetry,
> history, hiking and Creation spirituality.
Am inclined to the view that science is words of knowledge, religion
words of belief, & poetry words of truth :)
> I am also an avid "birder". What kind of martins are they and where
> are you? I am in Oklahoma.
House martins: Delichon Urbica - part of the lark/pippit/swallow group
found throughout Europe & Asia cept for more northerly latitudes. As they
winter *south* of the Sahara (at least the ones from Europe) I guess their
migratory route is closer to 3000 miles - I'm in Essex, SE England.
Dark-blue (look black) + white bib, neatly forked tails, mud nests often
close to each other found in the angles house walls make with the eaves,
the birds from the first hatching helping to feed those of the 2nd. And
they chatter to each other all night long... I try & provide them with a
wide variety of music to listen to (& avoid cooking things whose smell
might offend) but often wonder how it compares with the sounds they hear
while they wile away the wee hours of the African evenings...
>> "It is not known when the Chinese first used cannabis to achieve its
>> hallucinogenic effects, but it is known that consuming the drug for
>> this purpose was disapproved of in the period around 600 BC."
> And what purpose was it approved for, according to the writing?
"[8000 years ago] a culture on the island of Taiwan decorated its pots
by pressing strips of hemp rope into the wet clay... Some archeologists
believe the Chinese were the first to use cannabis for its medicinal
effects, around 4000 BC... The oldest preserved specimens of the plant
itself are pieces of cloth found in a Chinese burial site dated
approximately 1200 BC... Cannabis fibre (hemp) provided...bowstrings.
The Chinese were the first to use cannabis fibres to produce paper...
from the 1st century BC. The first writtem account of the use of
cannabis in Chinese medecine is thought to come from the first century.
The female plants... predominantly yin... [used] to treat rheumatism,
constipation, and absentmindedness... By the 2nd century cannabis
extracts were used as an anaesthetic for surgical operations
involving the stomach & intestines... in the 1st century the seeds of
the plant were still being burnt in incense burners to give people the
ability to see spirits and achieve immortality."
"The Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Drugs - Flowering Plants",
P Mick Richardson (New York Botanical Garden), Burke Publishing, 1986
(the volume contains no refs, but has a short bibliography including
standard texts by De Rios, Schultes & Hofmann etc).
all good things,
weed <chrisw@venus.co.uk>