I have a number of Mark Twain journalistic contributions available online in searchable format at: http://www.twainquotes.com A search for the keywords hash and hasheesh produced these first hand testimonials: ~~~~~ From the _Golden Era_, Oct. 11, 1863 - "The Great Prize Fight" "I determined to be upon the ground at an early hour. Now I dislike to be exploded, as it were, out of my balmy slumbers, by a sudden, stormy assault upon my door, and an imperative order to "Get up!" - wherefore I requested one of the intelligent porters of the Lick House to call at my palatial apartments, and murmur gently through the key-hole the magic monosyllable "Hash!" That "fetched me." ~~~~~ From the _Alta California_, March 3, 1868 in an article titled "Mark Twain on His Travels" wherein he critiques the play "The White Fawn": "I think these hundreds of princely costumes are changed every fifteen minutes during half the night; splendid pageants are filing about the stage constantly, yet one seems never to see the same dress twice. The final grand transformation scene is a vision of magnificence such as no man could imagine unless he had eaten a barrel of hasheesh." ~~~~~ There are other scattered references in my online collection as well as a few that can be found on the searchable text CD of _Twain's World_. Barb