17 virgins

[Rhizomorph13]

Hassan I. Sabbah had a better idea. He would get his prospective assasins to believe in paradise by actually creating it on earth. He would get them hopped up on hash then transport them into a lovely garden where they would be served by virgins he placed in the garden.

But the twist of the assassins was that they drugged the person to simulate a "dying" to later have them awaken in a garden flowing with wine and served a sumptuous feast by virgins. The supplicant was then convinced he was in Heaven and that the cult's leader, Hassan-i-Sabah, was a representative of the divinity and that all of his orders should be followed, even unto death. This legend derives from Marco Polo, who visited Alamut after it fell to the Mongols in the thirteenth century.

http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Assassins

Rhizo