Add half a pint of pine-apple syrup, one pint of strong green tea, a wine-glass of maraschino, a liqueur-glass of noyeau, half a pint of “Liquid Sunshine” rum, one pint of old brandy, and a bottle and a half of “the Boy.” Sweeten to taste, strain, and serve. Do not, oh! do not boil the above before serving, as did some Cleveland friends of mine, on the night of a certain Ebor Handicap. The result of this was a considerable amount of chaos. The above was the favourite tipple of the Prince Regent at the beginning of the present century. {115} 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 consumption of _Absinthe_ should be almost entirely confined to France. And what is absinthe? Merely alcohol, in {116} which have been macerated for a week or so the pounded leaves and flowering tops of wormwood, together with angelica root, sweet-flag root, star-anise, and other aromatics. The liquor is then distilled, and the result is the decoctions sacred to the “little green fairy,” who has accomplished even more manslaughter than the Mahdi, the Khalifa, and the Peculiar People, put together. Of all the liqueurs absinthe is the most pernicious; and with many other sins it occupies some time in taking possession of its victim. Like Mr. Chevalier’s hero, you “have to know it fust,” and after that the rest is easy. Like golf, “scorching,” and gambling, once you “get” absinthe, it gets you, and never leaves you whilst you last; and there is a weird, almost tragic, look about the milky liquid, when diluted with water, as to suggest smoke, and brimstone, and flames, with a demon rising from their midst. But it is only “the little green fairy”; who is, however, as deadly and determined as any demon.