The extreme severity with which the law of the Harem is executed in Bokhara, is looked for in vain among the Western Mohammedans, or even among the fanatic sect of the Wahabites. This law, so contrary to nature, has necessarily been the cause of a certain vice equally contrary to nature, and which, although it exists among Turks, Arabs and Persians, is confined within a comparatively narrow limit, and condemned as a "despicable sin" by the interpreters of the Koran as well as by public opinion. In Central Asia, especially in Bokhara and Khokand, this atrocious crime is carried to a frightful extent, and the religious of these countries considering it a protection against any transgression of the law of the Harem, and declaring it to be _no_ sin, marriages _à la Tiberius_ have become quite popular; nay, fathers feel not the smallest compunction in surrendering their sons to a friend or acquaintance for a certain annual stipend. Our pen refuses to describe this disgusting vice in its full extent; but even the few hints we have thrown out are sufficient to show the abyss of crime to which an exaggerated religious fanaticism degrades mankind. It is just the same with the prohibition of spirituous liquors. The Koran commands not only abstinence from wine, but from all intoxicating drinks, for this reason, that a state of intoxication would be attended by neglect of prayer, or of any other pious duty. The Western Mohammedans interpret this commandment as referring only to wine (sharab) in the strict sense of the word, and consider drinking arak (brandy) already a much less offence; many, indeed, are of opinion, that since it has not been expressly mentioned in the Koran, it would not be regarded as a sin to drink it with water. In Turkey and Persia brandy is as much in favour among the better educated classes, as wodki in Russia; but in Bokhara both brandy and wine are very rarely met with. Even those who do not confess the Mohammedan religion, such as Jews and Hindoos, cannot drink it except clandestinely, and the mere pronouncing the words sharab and arak, is a sin in the eyes of the orthodox. With facts like these one would expect the greatest sobriety among the people, but alas! how terrible is the substitute hypocrisy has invented! The Central Asiatics make a distinction between fluid and solid spirits. The former are strictly forbidden, whilst the latter, by which all narcotics are understood, are looked upon as perfectly innocent. The famous opium-eaters of Constantinople, who, at the present day almost extinct, were seen daily, at the beginning of the century, in the notorious square of Direkalti, and admired by all passers-by--the various hashish-eaters in Egypt--the lovers of the comparatively harmless teryak in Persia,--all these are as nothing in comparison with the bengis[19] of Central Asia. [19] Beng is the name of the poison which is produced from the canabis indica.