Damascus twist

1658: If any shall doubt why at the Amphidromicall Feasts, on the fifth day after the Childe was born presents were sent from friends, of Polipusses, and Cuttle-fishes? — Sir Thomas Browne, The Garden of Cyrus (Folio Society 2007, p. 213)

Nothing but an opium dream could transform the bare walls and the dirty cotton curtains into an Oriental palace with silken drapes and bedfuls of lovely daughters of the East.

The plant may preinspect some or all of the birds.