The most direct road and speediest conveyance to Paradise, according to the testimony of all confirmed opiophagi, is by means of that subtle drug, opium. The most common form in which it is taken is that of vapour, inhaled through a peculiarly-constructed pipe. Those used by the Siamese resemble in form the common narghilè, or hubble-bubble of the Levant. They consist of an empty cocoa-nut shell, in an orifice in the top of which a hollow wooden tube is inserted, and the opening hermetically closed, so as to prevent the escape of either air or smoke. In another hole in the side of the cocoa-nut shell, a common little bamboo tube, about eighteen inches long, is tightly fixed; a little earthen bowl, perforated at the bottom like a sieve, is filled with opium, and one or two pieces of fire being placed thereon, this bowl is fitted on the top of the wooden tube. The man who hands round this pipe holds with one hand the bottom of the cocoa-nut (which is half full of water), and with the other hand he presents the bamboo tube to the smoker, who, putting it to his mouth, inhales three or four whiffs of this most intoxicating narcotic. The effect is almost instantaneous. He sinks gently against the cushion set at his back, and becomes insensible to what is passing around. The pipe is passed round from mouth to mouth, so that half an hour generally intervenes between the first whiff taken by the first smoker, and the last sigh heaved by the last man, as he revives from his short, pleasant dream, into which the whiffing has thrown him. One old and inveterate Siamese smoker declared to a recent resident among them, that if he knew his life would be forfeited by the act, he could no more resist the temptation than he could curb a fiery steed by a thread bridle. It carried him into the seventh heaven—he heard and saw things no tongue could utter, and felt as though his soul soared so high above things earthly, during those precious moments of oblivion, as to have flown beyond the reach of its heavy, burthensome cage. Opium smoking is not generally conducted on a plan so social. The Siamese may be considered as an exception to the general rule. The method pursued at Hong-Kong, of which we have received an account from a competent authority, is more a type of the opium-smoker in general, and the method he pursues.