Eighth Colloquy: Bangue

Eighth Colloquy: On Bangue

Interlocutors: Ruano, Orta, Antónia

Ruano

I do not know the difference between what they call bangue¹ and what is called amjiam.² Perhaps they are one and the same, since I see that when you scold a servant you sometimes call him bangue, and at other times amjiam. So I should like to know what each one is, how each is made, and what each is used for.1Bangue is bhang, a South Asian cannabis preparation, usually made from leaves and flowers and consumed as a drink or edible.2Amjiam is opium, from Indo-Persian/Arabic usage; Orta distinguishes it from bangue here and returns to opium later in the Colóquios.

Orta

Amjiam is what we call opium, and I will tell you about it in due course. For now I will satisfy you by telling you what bangue is: namely, the plant and the seed. Antónia, bring here what I asked you to bring.

Antónia

Here is one of the small plants, and here you see the seed it gives; and here also is what is sold prepared in the apothecary's shop, since you told me to keep them all together.

Ruano

This seed resembles that of linho alcanave,³ except that it is smaller and not so white; and this little plant also resembles linho alcanave. So there is no need to speak of it, since we know what it is good for.3Linho alcanave refers to hemp or cannabis-like flax. Ficalho notes that Orta was observing forms of Cannabis sativa, though he treated Indian bangue and European hemp as distinct plants.

Orta

It is not linho alcanave, because the seed is smaller and is not as white as the other. The Indians eat this seed, or the pounded leaves, to help themselves and to take pleasure with women; and although they take it for other effects, namely to give themselves an appetite, it also helps them in this. Our writers say that linho alcanave corrupts the generative seed. Moreover, the branches of this plant have much wood and little bark, while linho alcanave has the opposite.

Ruano

Do they make any cords from these barks?

Orta

No.

Ruano

Is there something else from which they make them?

Orta

Yes, from the husk of the fruit of the palm, which we will mention later. In Balagate⁴ they also make cords from the bark of the root of a very large tree. And to speak truthfully with you, they also make them from linho alcanave, of which there is much there, and in the Deccan and Bengal. I also saw there our own flax, from which we make our shirts; and all this flax, and the linho alcanave, is merchandise that comes to us from the lands just mentioned, where they call it alei. But on this mainland there is little linho alcanave. So this should remove your doubt that this is not linho alcanave.4Balagate, or Balaghāt, refers to the upland interior of the Deccan Plateau, a broad Portuguese geographical term rather than a single place.

Ruano

Since that is so, tell me how this bangue is made, what it is taken for, and what goes into it.

Orta

It is made from the powder of these pounded leaves, and sometimes from the seed. Some add green areca,⁵ because it intoxicates and makes one be beside oneself. For the same purpose they mix in nutmeg and mace, which have the same intoxicating effect. Others add cloves; others camphor from Borneo; others amber and musk;⁶ and some add amjiam. These are the Moors⁷ who are very powerful.5Green areca is the areca nut, commonly chewed with betel and used as a stimulant across South and Southeast Asia.6Nutmeg, mace, cloves, camphor, amber, and musk were expensive aromatics and materia medica. Orta is describing a compounded electuary, not a simple cannabis preparation.7“Moors” is early modern Portuguese shorthand for Muslims in the Indian Ocean world. The term is broad, imprecise, and entirely normal for the period.

The benefit they draw from this is to be beside themselves, as if enraptured, without any care, and made cheerful;⁸ and some laugh a foolish laugh. I have heard from many women that when they went to see a man, they took it in order to be playful and witty with him.⁹8“Beside themselves” renders fora de si; “enraptured” renders enlevados. Orta’s phrasing sits between intoxication and ecstasy, without troubling itself much over the border.9Orta’s note on women taking bangue before visiting men reflects early modern medical and sexual assumptions as much as pharmacological observation.

What is said about why it was invented is that great captains in ancient times were accustomed to intoxicate themselves with wine, or with amjiam, or with this bangue, so as to forget their labors, to be without worry, and to be able to sleep, because wakefulness tormented such men.

And the great Sultan Badur¹⁰ said to Martim Afonso de Sousa,¹¹ whom he loved greatly and to whom he revealed his secrets, that when at night he wished to go to Portugal, to Brazil, to Turkey, to Arabia, and to Persia, he did no more than eat a little bangue. They make it into an electuary with sugar and with the things mentioned above, and call it maju.¹²10Sultan Badur is Bahadur Shah of Gujarat (r. 1526-1535/37), a major ruler in western India and a central figure in Portuguese-Gujarati struggles over Diu.11Martim Afonso de Sousa (c. 1500-1564) was a Portuguese noble, explorer, and colonial governor who served in Brazil and the Estado da Índia.12Maju is majun or ma'jun, a sweet electuary often made with cannabis, opium, spices, or some profitable combination of the three.

Ruano

Does it produce these pleasurable effects in everyone?

Orta

It may be that, in those accustomed to it, it produces them in this way. But I saw a Portuguese jester, who had gone with me to Balagate long ago, eat one or two slices of this electuary. At night he was pleasantly drunk, extremely talkative, and making his testament. Yet he was sad in his crying and in the sorrows he spoke of. I mean that, as far as he himself was concerned, he seemed to have sadness and great nausea; but in those who saw or heard him, he provoked laughter, as a melancholy drunkard does.

And these servants of mine, who take it secretly from me, say that it makes them not feel their labors, makes them cheerful, and gives them an appetite. Believe that, since this is so widely used and by so many people, it is not without mystery and benefit. But I have not tried it, nor do I wish to try it. Many Portuguese have told me that they have taken it for the same effects, especially the one concerning women. Since this is not one of our medicines, nor one that exists there, let us not spend any more time on it.