a garden of Gul — “Gul” may refer to a person, or may just be the word “gul” which means “flower” in Persian. I suspect that Ludlow was familiar with the term through Thomas Hood’s 1840 pun-filled poem “Miss Kilmansegg and Her Precious Leg.” In that poem, Miss Kilmansegg has an artificial leg made of gold (which makes me recall the legend that Pythagoras had a thigh made of gold). In the poem, “Margaret, charm’d by the Bulbul rare, In a garden of Gul reposes.” Both the Bulbul and Thomas Hood are referenced in other parts of The Hasheesh Eater, which makes me suspect that this poem left an impression.