OCR Text |
Show Origin of "Assassin." The drug hashish or Indian hemp, for which Egyptians will pay such a high price, has given us our word, "assassin." These desperadoes formed form-ed originally a secret society in Persia, Per-sia, relates London Chronicle, in the eleventh century, members of which were under a vow of blind obedience to their chief. They were called upon to perpetrate the most atrocious deeds, und before these ruffians were sent out to perform their grewsome tasks they were given hashish, by which they were thrown into a kind of ecstasy ec-stasy or intoxication. Hence they were called "Hashishin," meaning hemp-eaters. hemp-eaters. The word became part of Western languages; but was changed Into "assassins." |