Chapter IX: Part 9

[2] Cf. the physiological action of peyote-alkaloids, discussed elsewhere (dilation of the pupil, increased reflex excitability). The use of narcotics in this area in connection with racing appears again with peyote in northern Mexico, and with the “mescal bean” (_Sophora secundiflora_) among the Wichita. The Acaxee used peyote in their ball play, much as the “black drink” (_Ilex cassine_) was used in the Southeast. Cf. Mooney’s (_Tarumari-Guayachic_) “Muräto,” apparently identical with Lumholtz’ Mulato, that “is used mostly in races, not ground up, but tied whole around waist, at back.”

[3] Lumholtz, _Unknown Mexico_, 1:373. In this region narcotics in general are much employed in connection with war, and the magical “witching” of the enemy—whose power is not merely physical but magically malevolent too. “Mescal beans” were part of the war-bundle in some southern Plains tribes, and both peyote and datura were used clairvoyantly and prophetically in war connections. The attitude that the enemy is a witch, Dr. Spier informs me, is widespread among both the Yumans and Athapascans of the Southwest. Cf. also peyote and captured scalps (e.g., Maricopa) talking, and being danger-ridden.

[4] This is an instance where it is rewarding conscientiously to respect native categories and ethnobotanical statements for hordenine (= anhaline, one of the alkaloids of Lophophora) was discovered in _Anhalonium fissuratum_ in 1894 by Heffter (see Appendix 5, fn. 5).

[5] Mooney, _Tarumari-Guayachic_, says sunami is very much respected, and is used only by doctors. Women doctors grind them on metates, placing the plant upright and crushing it with one blow (cf. the “killing” of mescal beans in the Plains). Doctors assemble for this feast, which requires the sacrifice of a beef. Special rites attend its gathering, and it must be gathered in a black blanket and bleeds red blood. It must be kept in a double basket in a cave, lest it hear quarreling in the house. It dislikes fire, and after ten or twenty years it loses its virtue and must be replanted with copal incensing where originally found. Doctors rub tizwin-and-sunami over the heart and rest of the body, for it makes one win races. _Anhalonium fissuratum_ has a striking resemblance to deer-hooves; it is likely the hikuli referred to in this and other Tarahumari-Huichol tales—but it should be recalled that peyotism in Mexico is also connected with deer-hunting.

[6] Lumholtz, _Unknown Mexico_, 1:373-74; Mooney, _Tarumari-Guayachic_, says this variety is as big as a man’s hat. The description probably refers to an occasional polycephalous specimen of _Lophophora williamsii_ (hikuli wanamé).

[7] Lumholtz, _Unknown Mexico_ 1:374; _Tarahumari Dances_, 253, 452-54; cf. Mooney’s (_Tarumari-Guayachic_) kókoyómi. Mooney thought Lumholtz’ “walulasahane” was Tepecano, not Tarahumari.

[8] The resemblance of some _Mammillaria_ spp. to a head or scalp of hair is quite striking; Higgins, in fact, figures an “Old Man Cactus” with long flowing white “hair.”

[9] Bennett and Zingg, _The Tarahumara_, 290.

[10] Bennett and Zingg, _op. cit._, 137, 295. The users of bakánawa believe it to be even more powerful than peyote. One can more easily believe that the ataxic gait of a peyote-intoxicated person would “throw” him over a cliff or break a leg, than that it would result in any conspicuously superior racing ability.

[11] Dorman, in Bourke, _Scatalogical Rites_, 91, says mushrooms were “worshipped” in the Antilles, in Virginia, and possibly also in California. The Siberian use of _Amanita_ spp. is well-known, but no doubt these sporadic uses are all independent of each other.

[12] Lumholtz, _Unknown Mexico_, 2:354; see also notes 41, 45, 48 in Appendix 6.

[13] The writer has published elsewhere on the subject of the numerous native American beers (see _Native American Beers_). So far as a cactus-source of these is concerned, the following groups make use of _Cereus giganteus_ Englm. and _C. Thurberi_ Englm. for their sahuaro drink: Huichol (?), Pima, Maricopa, Yuma, Papago, Halchidoma (?), and San Carlos Apache.

[14] The ilex “black drink” is Catawba (_Handbook of the American Indians_, 1:150a, 2:1000-1001); Alibamu (Forster, _Bossu_, 254, 261, 294, 354-55); Creek (Swanton, _Social Organization and Social Usages_, 307, 445; Adair, in Swanton, _Social and Religious Beliefs_, 265; Speck, _The Creek Indians_, 110, 117-18, 134; Bartram, _Travels_, 449, 507), both Taskigi and Mikasuki; Cherokee (Bartram, _Travels_, 357); Chickasaw (Swanton, _Social and Religious Beliefs_, 240); Koasati (Paz, _Koasati Field Notes_); Yuchi (Speck, _Ethnology of the Yuchi_, 122-24, 135); Natchez (Charlevoix, _Histoire de l’Isle_, 166; du Pratz, _Histoire_, 2:46, 3:13); Atakapa (Forster, _Bossu_, 1:354-55), Chitamacha (Gatschet, in Swadesh, _Chitamacha Texts_) and Karankawa (Oliver, in Gatschet, _The Karankawa Indians_, 18-19). Also in Florida (de Laudoniére, in Lewin, _Phantastica_, 279; Safford, _Narcotic Plants_, 417; Romans, _A Concise Natural History_, 94), and also possibly in Virginia (Beverly, _History of Virginia_, 175-80; Ribault [1666], Dominique de Gourages [1567], McCullough, Le Moyne—all in Havard, _Drink Plants_, 41-42; Lawson, _History of Carolina_, 380-82 [1860 ed.]; Adair, _The History of the American Indian_, 108). A similar emetic rite is also found among the “Cutalchich” of Texas (Cabeza de Vaca, in Safford, _Narcotic Plants_, 416-17), the Tainan or Greater Antilles Arawak (Gower, _The Northern and Southern Affiliations_, 39-40), the Lesser Antilles Carib and Guiana (Dixon [R. B.], _Some Aspects_, 1-12), the Amazon Basin (Wissler, _The American Indian_, 213), Jivaro and Canelo of Ecuado (Karsten, in Lewin, _Phantastica_, 279-81; Safford, _Narcotic Plants_, 413, 416); Guarani of Northern Bolivia (Safford, op. cit., 413; Spruce, _Notes of a Botanist_, 2:419-20). See also Thurnwald, _Economics_, 65; Harrington, _Cuba Before Columbus_, 295, 388-89; Spier, _Yuman Tribes_, 181; _Handbook of the American Indians_, 2:32a, 145-46; Sapir, _Kaibab-Paiute_. An interestingly parallel distribution (which may have historical relevance) is that of fish and arrow poisons. Fish poisons are reported for northeastern South America, the Orinoco valley, the upper Amazon, the Antillean Carib; the Tarahumari, Acaxee, Opata and in California; the Catawba, Taskigi Creek, Cherokee, Koasati, Yuchi and Iroquois (cf. the blow-gun of the Creek, Cherokee, Choctaw, Iroquois, Yuchi, central Carib, Florida Key-dwellers, natives of Hispaniola and of northeastern South America). Arrow poisons are found in Sonora, Central America, the Guianas, the Antilles (Carib), Florida Arawak (?) and, in historic times, the Tarahumari, as well as in South America. The Opata, curiously, used yerba de fleche to poison deer at water-holes. Beals (_Comparative Ethnology_, 115, 193) also lists poison arrows for the Southern Diegueño, Chumash, Cahuilla, Yavapai, Havasupai, Navaho, Western Apache, Lipan, Natchez (?), Seri, Mixtec and in Sinaloa and Culiacan. Spier adds the Blackfoot and perhaps other Plains groups to this list. The group with poison arrows south of the Great Lakes (_Jesuit Relations_, 8:302, in Gower, 21) one would guess is Iroquois.

[15] We ignore for our purposes the South American area of the use of datura, though it is surely connected with the Mexican culturally and historically, as well as the South American use of coca, tobacco, cohoba snuff (_Piptadenia peregrina_), guarana (_Paullinia cupana_ or _P. sorbilis_), chocolatl (_Theobroma cacao_), aya-huasca (_Banisteria caapi_) and yajé (_Haemadictyon Amazonicum_ Spruce). Many of the uses of these plants in war, prophesying, divination, ordeals, and doctoring are strikingly similar to the Mexican uses of marihuana, datura, teo-nanacatl and peyote.

[16] The sources for these are cited in Gayton, _The Narcotic Plant Datura_, a manuscript to which I am much indebted.

[17] Note the parallel uses of datura in South America found among the Inca, Matacuna, Chancay, Sipibo, Cocoma, Omagua, Jivaro, Canelo, Quijo, Zaparo, Guanes (Guanuco?), Chibcha and in Darien (after Gayton). The “wysoccan” used by the Pamunky (Beverly, _History of Virginia_, 2:24) is said to be a datura (Safford, _Daturas_, 557-58); the sporadic use as a medicament in Jamaica (Beckwith, _Notes on Jamaica_, 9, note 5, 28) may not be aboriginal.

[18] The writer hopes in due time to publish further data on New World narcotics.

[19] De la Serna, in Safford, _Daturas_, 551, Arlegui, _Crónica_, 144; Rouhier, _Monographie_, 331.

[20] Gerste, _Notes sur la médicine_, 51. This may be the source of Reko’s erroneous teo-nanacatl etymology.

[21] Preuss, _Nayarit-Expedition_, 1:231.

[22] Diguet, _Le Peyote et son Usage_, 21, note 1.

[23] Mason, _Tepecano Prayers_, 138, 139, 142, 143. Cf. the supposed aphrodisiac effects of peyote, teo-nanacatl, and marihuana.

[24] Russell, _The Pima_, 299-300. Cf. sunami of the Tarahumari for deer hunting, and the mescal bean for buffalo hunting.

[25] Hrdlička, _Physiological and Medical Observations_, 28; cf. _Handbook of the American Indians_, 2:837b.

[26] Bourke, _The Medicine-Men_, 455.

[27] Spier, _Havasupai_, 249, 269.

[28] Stevenson, _Ethnobotany of the Zuñi_, 46, 47, 88; _The Zuñi Indians_, 385; Parsons, _A Zuñi Detective_, 168-70. Every single instance in this paragraph finds parallels in the uses of peyote: the powdering of the root, rain-getting, discovery of robbers, as an anodyne, for wounds, etc., differentiation in sex and communication with the dead. Note also in connection with rain-making the “water-bird” of peyotism.

[29] Lumholtz, _Unknown Mexico_, 1:4; _The American Cave-Dwellers_, 389; cf. the running amuck with peyote.

[30] Robbins _et alii_, _Ethnobotany of the Tewa_, 55, note 1.

[31] References from Gayton, _The Narcotic Plant Datura_.

[32] Cf. the use of peyote formerly only by adult warriors.

[33] Cf. the group use of marihuana, teo-nanacatl and peyote in Mexico.

[34] Again compare peyote, particularly in the Plains.

[35] Kroeber (_Handbook_ 462, 589, 593, 609, 613-14) lists tribes who may lack it. See also Kroeber, _Anthropology_, 309-311.

[36] Summarized from Gayton, citing W. D. Strong, _Aboriginal Society_.

[37] Cf. the preparation of peyote in Mexico.

[38] Summarized from Gayton.

[39] Cf. this and the following elements with peyote usages.

[40] Cf. the Mexican use of peyote.

APPENDIX 5: CHEMISTRY OF PEYOTE

Alkaloids are found in a number of cacti: _Cereus peruvianus_, _C. pecten aboriginum_, _Pilocereus sargentianus_ Orcutt, _Phyllocactus ackermanii_, _P. russelianus_, _Echinocereus mamillosus_, _Mammillaria cirrhifera_, _M. uberiformis_, _M. centricirrha_, _Anhalonium prismaticum_, _A. fissuratum_,[1] and _Lophophora williamsii_. _Lophophora_ in its mature state, however, is notable for the number of alkaloids which it contains, nine being known at present.

The long and hotly-disputed botanical question of _Anhalonium williamsii_ versus _A. lewinii_, beyond its ethnographic significance in accounting the plants “male” and “female,” has a chemical aspect for a time obscuring their botanical identity. _A. williamsii_ (young specimens of _Lophophora_) contains only the alkaloid Pellotine,[2] while _A. lewinii_ (the mature _Lophophora_) contains at least nine, as follows:[3] Anhaline (C₁₀H₁₅ON), Anhalamine (C₁₁H₁₅O₃N), Mescaline (C₁₁H₁₇O₃N), Anhalonidine (C₁₂H₁₇O₃N), Anhalonine (C₁₂H₁₅O₃N), Lophophorine (C₁₃H₁₇O₃N), Pellotine (C₁₃H₁₉O₃N), Anhalinine and Anhalidine. Lophophorine is an oily colorless liquid; mescaline crystallizes only in the presence of atmospheric CO₂; and anhalonidine crystallizes imperfectly; the rest are crystalline. Their physiological activity appears to increase with their chemical complexity.[4]

Hordenine was first isolated from _A. fissuratum_ by Heffter in 1894 and shown to be identical with Späth’s anhaline from _Lophophora_ in 1920; Heffter isolated pellotine in 1894, mescaline, anhalonidine, anhalonine and lophophorine in 1896, Kauder adding anhalamine in 1899. Capellman collaborated with Heffter on mescaline in 1905. If Heffter first isolated the _Lophophora_ alkaloids, Späth is to be largely credited with establishing their chemical constitution and synthesizing them: mescaline in 1920, anhalamine in 1921, and anhalonidine and pellotine in 1922. Röder in 1922 and Gangl in 1923 collaborated in establishing the chemical constitution of others of the alkaloids.[5]

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Tschirsch, _Handbuch_, 680.

[2] Henry (T. A.), _The Plant Alkaloids_, 194; Moureu, _Review_, 519; Heffter, _Ueber zwei Cacteenalkaloïde_, 2977; _Ueber Pellote_, 309 ff.; Späth, _Über die Anhalonium_; I, _Anhalin und Mezcalin_, 129; Kunkel, _Handbuch_, 836; Schumann, _Über giftige Kakteen_, 106.

[3] Henry (T. A.), _loc. cit._ The more recently discovered anhalinine and anhalidine are cited from Schultes, _Peyote and Plants Used_, 134.

[4] Rouhier, _Monographie_, 196, 201, 205, 212.

[5] Henry (T. A.), _The Plant Alkaloids_, 194-95; Moureu, _Review_, 520; Heffter, _Ueber zwei Cacteenalkaloïde_, 2976; _Ueber Pellote_, 69-73; Späth, _Ueber die Anhalonium_; I, _Anhalin und Mezcalin_, 129, 138-39; II, _Die Konstitution_, 97, 263. Anhalonine has been found in _A. jourdanianum_ (Henry, _op. cit._, 194; Heffter, _Ueber Pellote_, 427) which is identical with _Lophophora_. See Heffter, _Ueber zwei Cacteenalkaloïde_, 2976-77, also vols. 29:216, 223-25, 227; 34:3005, 3008, 3013; Heffter and Capellman, _Versuch zur Synthese_, 38:3634-40; Kauder, _Über Alkaloide_, 190-98. Späth, with Gangl and Röder, _Über de Anhalonium_, IV, VI; Kunkel, _Handbuch_, 836.

APPENDIX 6: PHYSIOLOGY OF PEYOTE

ACTION OF THE INDIVIDUAL ALKALOIDS OF LOPHOPHORA WILLIAMSII

Since the alkaloids of peyote fall into two classes with regard to physiological action, the strychnine-like (increased reflex-irritability to the point of tetanus) and the morphine-like (sedative-soporific) and since there are important ethnographic considerations concerning the supposed “sex” of peyote, we discuss the action of each alkaloid before characterizing pan-peyotl physiologically. The two groups are somewhat antagonistic in action; ethnographic indications seem to point to the earlier action of the strychnine-like alkaloids, and a delayed reaction of the morphine-like. However, the size of the dose and the continued ingestion of buttons during the night cause variations in the length of the different periods of intoxication.

The peyote-alkaloids might be arranged in a scale, with mescaline at the morphine-like extreme and lophophorine at the other: (morphine-like) mescaline, peyotline, anhaline, anhalamine, anhalonidine, anhalonine, lophophorine (strychnine-like). Peyotline, however, has a variable effect on different individuals, while anhalonine has been accounted of the morphine-like group by Rouhier.[1] The color-visions so conspicuous in peyote-intoxication are chiefly produced by mescaline.[2] Lophophorine is the most toxic.[3] Physiologically the effects of the individual alkaloids are:[4]

_Mescaline_: slowing of pulse, slight headache, sensation of
heaviness in the limbs lasting one to several hours; heavier
doses, feeling of discomfort and fullness of stomach (even when
injected intravenously) in addition to the above symptoms;
still heavier doses, accentuation of symptoms and appearance of
color-visions.

_Peyotline_: in about an hour reduces the pulse approximately
one-quarter the normal number of beats; two hours after
ingestion, heaviness of eyelids, sensation of fatigue, aversion
to all physical or mental effort; has no marked analgesic
action but is a fairly good sedative and has a very appreciable
hypnotic and anodyne action.

_Anhaline_ [= hordenine]:[5] exercises a paralyzing effect on
the central nervous system.

_Anhalamine_: this has not been adequately studied
physiologically. Nor have _Anhalinine_ and _Anhalidine_.

_Anhalonidine_: only slight sleepiness and dull sensation in
head; pulse not affected.

_Anhalonine_: produces no sensible effect, except perhaps a
slight sleepiness.

_Lophophorine_: the most toxic, has no narcotic action; a
quarter-hour after ingestion an accentuated sickening feeling
in the back of the head, with hotness and blushing of face,
slight pulse diminution; symptoms disappear after 40 minutes.

“In short,” says Rouhier,[6] “save for anhalonidine which,
in strong doses, provokes in the frog paralysis of the
motor nerve-ends (which is not observed otherwise in
mammals), the alkaloids of peyote act on the central nervous
system.... [Mescaline] acts on the brain, which it paralyzes.
[Lophophorine] is antagonistic in action to this, augmenting
the irritability of the spinal cord and its elongations....
Peyotline, anhalonine and anhalonidine hold a middle place
between the two preceding. They produce in the frog a soporific
effect (due to the paralysis of the brain or central nervous
system), followed by an effect of tetanus. Anhalonidine and
anhalonine have identical physiological effects. The paralyzing
effect of the former is of long duration. That of the second is
much reduced and is lacking in warm-blooded animals.”

ACTION OF PAN-PEYOTL

The native use of peyote, however, involves of course the whole series of alkaloids, and we must discuss the physiological effect of pan-peyotl preparations. Since antagonistic alkaloids are at work, it is not surprising to find several stages of physiological action with the whole plant. Dixon writes:[7]

The action may be divided into a preliminary stage and a stage
of intoxication. In the former there is excitement, a feeling
of exhilaration, and diminished kinaesthetic sensations,
performances involving effort being hardly noticed; the face
is flushed, and the pupils dilated; there is a tendency to
talkativeness, which may become wandering later, when the
patient begins to feel “lightheaded.”

This stage quickly passes away, and is followed by one of
intoxication, in which there is a great inclination to lie
down, although there is never any tendency to sleep. The
pupils are now widely dilated, but act sluggishly to light.
On attempting to walk, the gait closely resembles that in
alcoholic intoxication, and in all bodily movements requiring
precision, the incoördination is evident. The body is generally
in a tremulous condition, the tremors showing well when the
attention is fixed on anything held in the hand. Reflexes over
the whole body are much increased, including the skin reflexes,
although there is considerable blunting of painful and tactile
sensation. Twitching of muscles occurs in various parts of the
body, especially noticeable in the face, and there is a curious
feeling as if the face, lips, tongue, etc., were much swollen.

As in _cannabis indica_, time is over-estimated, possibly as a
result of the rapid flow of ideas[8] and the inability to fix
the attention. Perception of space is also modified,[9] on one
occasion giving the impression that the ground sloped away in
all directions.

Perception may be considerably delayed; for example, one
may look at a person one knows well, and it is only after
scanning his features for what appears to the experimenter
a considerable time, that recognition occurs;[10] it is
possible, however, that this may be explained by the increased
time-relation. The attention cannot be fixed, as the least
stimulus is sufficient to alter the train of thought; thus it
was found impossible to fix the attention on a book, and a
subsequent examination of notes attempted during intoxication
showed incoördination both as regards language and writing.

On two occasions when deeply under the influence of the drug,
there was an indescribable feeling of dual existence; thus
after sitting with closed eyes subjectively examining the color
visions, on suddenly opening them for a brief space one seems
to be a different self, as on waking from a dream we pass into
a different world from that in which we have been. This may be
to some extent comparable to the rhythmical rise and fall of
the “physical waves” in Indian hemp intoxication.[11]

But by far the most remarkable of these subjective phenomena
are the sensory hallucinations,[12] especially visual. These
arise gradually, and are at first only seen with closed
eyes.... The visions rapidly become more marked, until on
closing the eyes a regular kaleidoscopic play of colours can be
seen with either eye, precisely the same; hence the condition
must be central.

These colours may assume all kinds of fantastic shapes; they
are never still, but constantly in motion, sometimes in a
circular or to-and-fro manner, but more generally there
is a kind of pulsation somewhat similar to that in the
cinematograph.[13]

Both native visions and white observations testify abundantly to the phenomena of synaesthesis, or the perception of the data of one sense in terms of another. Rouhier figures a painting made by an experimenter in which the sound of a bell is seen as a surréaliste aggregate of flowing, pulsating lines; and a subject of Havelock Ellis had a “curious sensation of tasting colors.” Crichtly mentions a color-taste synaesthesia also.[14] All these phenomena are physiological constants, as indicated by comparison of native visions with white experimenters’ observations.

After visual hallucinations far the commonest are auditory ones. The writer, with a number of other observers, has noted the preternatural resonance, hollowness, discreteness and far-away quality of one’s own voice; if vocal disfunction were involved one would expect a raising of pitch here, hence it is probably auditory. On this point Dixon bears critical evidence:[15]

The whole effect of the sound of the piano was most curious
and delightful, the whole air being filled with music, each
note of which seemed to arrange itself around a medley of
other notes which appeared to me to be surrounded by a halo of
colour pulsating to the music. Nasal hyperaesthesia was also
present, though less evident than either the visual or auditory
phenomena.

The more strictly physiological effects may be summed up as follows:[16]

_Skin_: no local irritation on injection of pan-peyotl; one
observer reports partial skin anaesthesia, but this does not
affect cutaneous reflex-excitability, which is much increased.

_Respiration_: moderate amounts in Rana esculens produce no
effect, but in toxic doses respiration becomes quicker and
shallower, death ultimately occurring from paralysis of the
respiratory center. In man respiration is ordinarily not
affected, but some observers report shallower and more rapid
breathing with “occasional long-drawn and deep sighs, and a
painful feeling of suffocation.” Still another observer states
that “respiration slows immediately after injection but is not
influenced in a durable manner.”[17]

_Circulation_: in the frog a marked effect on heart-beat:
diminished rapidity, but increased duration; in the dog a
small dose causes a slight rise in pressure, stronger doses
considerable depression on the heart and vasodilation; in the
cat mescaline causes initial lower pressure, slowly rising, and
with a larger dose a greater initial fall, more marked slowing
in beat, with variable promptness in recovery. In man .05 gr.
of lophophorine causes marked slowing of beat but a rise in
pressure and force. An ordinary dose of four “buttons” produces
a 15-25% fall in the number of beats, with a slow recovery from
a sharp drop unless more are eaten. But death in guinea pigs
and frogs comes through paralysis of respiration, not of the
heart, since in Wiley’s experiments it would beat 15-20 minutes
after the death of the animal. “All this evidence points to the
conclusion that the main effect of these alkaloids is a direct
one on cardiac muscle ... [since] very large doses, quite
non-therapeutic in amount, are ... required before the colour
visions ... are observed.”

_Salivation_: increased in the cat, whether administered by
mouth or subcutaneously; the alkaloids are secreted in the
saliva (one cc. of cat saliva produces the same symptoms in a
frog); in man salivation is somewhat increased.

_Digestive system_: in small doses pan-peyotl is constipating,
according to some. In the cat large doses produce diarrhea and
blood in the feces. In man and the quadrupeds all sensations
of hunger are suppressed or absent during the period of
intoxication, but the appetite returns somewhat increased after
recovery; on first injection or ingestion there is a marked
nausea and feeling of fullness in the stomach which passes off,
without, however, hunger arising.

_Blood, secretions, etc._: no increase in the coagulability of
the blood; pancreatic and biliary secretions unaffected.

_Kidneys_: peyote alkaloids chiefly excreted by the kidneys;
experiments show increased renal blood supply, and pan-peyotl
is markedly diuretic.

_Eyes_: in the later stages of intoxication the pupils are
widely dilated, accompanied by lack of accommodation and
consequent photophobia.

_Nervous system_: sizeable doses produce their most marked
effect on the nervous system: wakefulness (despite cardiac
and muscular depression), exaggeration of all reflexes (due
to selective action on the spinal cord). A frog injected with
pan-peyotl became “exceedingly susceptible to stimuli, until
even the slightest touch or even a breath of cold air is
sufficient to give rise to a little nervous explosion, with
the resulting contraction of several muscles”; the frog became
rigid in tetanus as the reflexes degenerated. Convulsions are
produced in the dog with ⅕ cc. of pan-peyotl, sometimes
light, sometimes as violent as those of strychnine; death in
convulsions with 1 cc. per kilogram of body weight. Pan-peyotl
immediately kills a rabbit with a dose of 2 cc. per kilogram
of body weight, injected intravenously; 2 cc. injected in the
lymphatic sac paralyzes a frog. An injected cat shows “ataxic
gait, with jerky and stiff movements”—a staccato effect in an
animal notable for the legato quality of its movements—with
“irregular twitchings of muscles over the whole body.” The
same effects, less marked because of relatively smaller doses,
appear in man as in other mammals. Extraordinary doses cause
qualitatively and quantitatively the same reactions: the writer
has seen a child, quite ill and suffering from malnutrition,
brought very fretful into a peyote meeting and fed peyote “tea”
until rigid in strychnine-like tetanic opisthotonos.

_Psychic state_: exceedingly variable, varying culturally,
with the stages of intoxication, and in the individual
himself at different times. Mexican visions sometimes have
a frightening tone, sometimes one of hilarity. The writer
had marked confirmation of this while still ignorant of this
ethnographic fact: in an Oto meeting in 1936 visions were
of monstrous animals so ridiculous and hilariously funny
that proper self-restraint in meeting was difficult; yet, in
a control experiment comfortably conducted in New Haven,
the psychic state developed into one of stark, galloping,
psychotic terror, quite inexplicable on realistic grounds
(later, parallels were found in Winnebago material and in
white observations). Curiously enough Dixon noted in a cat
photophobia, dilated pupils and a fixed “stare ... [and] most
of the physical elements of ‘terror.’ ... The ears were drawn
back, the hair over the body, especially the tail, becomes
erected, there is twitching of the superficial muscles, the
respiration being shallow and hurried, and the heart weak and
irregular.” One experimenter’s subject became possessed of the
fixed idea that he was being poisoned, when the intoxication
had thoroughly developed. This experience, once felt, is so
strikingly physiological that one is tempted to wonder if there
is any hypersecretion of adrenalin, perhaps in adjustmental
reaction to the effect of the alkaloids on the heart. Dixon
thought _Lophophora_ differed from _Cannabis indica_ in never
provoking merriment; yet Wertham and Bleuler had one subject
who achieved a state of to him quite meaningless hilarity. Fear
states are present among native users also, to judge from the
content of some visions recorded; conceivably these might be
the psychic end-results of the intensified reflex-excitability
induced by the strychnine-like alkaloids. However, one should
bear in mind throughout the antagonistic effect of the
alkaloids, which together with individual, cultural and other
differences (physiological state, amount eaten, the form in
which the drug is taken—infusion or solid, dry or green—the
continued eating of it in late stages of intoxication, etc.)
contribute to widely variable reactions. The experiments of
Wertham and Bleuler are impressive in this connection.[18] This
variability for the same subject at different times, Indians
explain, is conditioned by what one starts thinking about when
the intoxication begins.[19]

PEYOTE AS APHRODISIAC AND ANAPHRODISIAC

We have previously noted the use in Mexico of teo-nanacatl, _Cacalia_ spp. and _Cannabis_ spp. for their supposed aphrodisiac virtues. Peyote too has become involved in this use, but it has been as warmly defended as attacked, some indeed maintaining that it is a specific anaphrodisiac. It can hardly be both. The present writer, as a matter of fact, considers this less a problem of physiology than one of ethnology, psychology or even psychiatry, and is persuaded that in the pharmacological-physiological sense there exist neither aphrodisiacs nor their opposite, anaphrodisiacs.

The matter is not to be settled off-handedly by resort to experiments on white subjects; it is a more intricate question of culture and personality. If white subjects argue heatedly for peyote’s aphrodisiac and anaphrodisiac virtues, this proves nothing physiological. It merely indicates the long notorious fact that given the somewhat anti-sexual tradition of west European culture, the typical anxiety of its culture-bearers is sexual. This is scarcely the case with the Plains Indians I have observed. As expressed in ritual, symbolism and prayer, the typical anxiety of these natives is that about life itself—and the culture-historical background out of which this has grown will be readily recalled by students of Plains ethnography (constant warfare, prestige symbolisms, the coming of the Whites with new diseases, superior weapons, etc.).

We shall merely cite here, therefore, instances showing up the order of “proof” so far adduced to support these contrary stands about peyote. Lumholtz leads the anaphrodisiac school:

Another marked effect of the plant is to take away temporarily
all sexual desire. This fact, no doubt, is the reason why the
Indians, by a curious aboriginal mode of reasoning, impose
abstinence from sexual intercourse as a necessary part of the
hikuli cult.[20]

Wertham and Bleuler also write of subjects that[21] “efforts to conjure up an erotic scene were unsuccessful.” Fernberger,[22] however, exhibits a still more naïve sense of evidence:

[An ethnographer] reports that in the Peyote Cults investigated
there is no actual, implied or even symbolic eroticism[23]
which marks these ceremonies off from practically every other
known American Indian ceremony of any tribe or group [!]. In
order to test the validity of some of these reports, nine
mature members of the faculty ... submitted together to extreme
peyote intoxication.[24] [The experiment was performed in a
group _because_ it] gave the opportunity for suggestion of
one observer upon another [and permitted a ceremony complete
with rattles and drum. Consequently[25]] one unexpected and
unforeseen result of this investigation is the evident strongly
anti-aphrodisiac[26] effect of the drug. This would again
explain, for social psychology and for anthropology, the
purely and totally unerotic character[27] of the ceremonies of
the Peyote Cults so unusual to American Indian ceremonies.[28]

It seems alike profitless to enter into a discussion of those who argue the aphrodisiac properties of peyote.[29] These have often enough been missionaries and administrators whose use of the argument in bitter attacks on the Native American Church shows them to be scarcely disinterested. Certainly from the evidence so far at hand we can only heartily endorse the opinion of Klüver[30] that “the drug apparently does not influence the sexual sphere in any specific way.”

THERAPEUTIC USES OF PEYOTE

From the physiological relation of the peyote alkaloids to strychnine and morphine, considerable enthusiasm was early shown about their pharmacodynamics and possible therapeutic uses. Jolly[31] in 1896 experimented on pellotine [= peyotline] as a hypnotic and soporific, for when used in small doses in man the fall of the pulse initially is accompanied by sleepiness. Heffter[32] likewise reports a marked heaviness of limbs and eyelids. Loaeza,[33] apparently using pan-peyotl preparations, maintained that peyote and _Cereus serpentinus_ (organillo) had value as tonics or cardiac regulators, but variable action and individual idiosyncrasy is marked. Henry[34] says the therapeutic dose of pellotine is one-third to two-thirds of a grain, but that it is only “slightly narcotic.” The high toxicity of lophophorine discourages its therapeutic use. Rouhier[35] wrote in 1926 that “properly speaking, therapeusis by peyote does not yet exist. Although the drug was introduced in the American pharmaceutical market[36] for twenty years, from which it has since disappeared, it is still unknown to the great medical public.” On the whole, however, the therapeutic possibilities of _Lophophora_ seem unimpressive.[37]

USES IN PSYCHIATRY

Because peyote produces what has been described as a “mescal psychosis,” it has been suggested that it might be a useful approach for the psychiatrist in the study of schizophrenia. The production of “horrible depressions” in a subject of Prentiss and Morgan and “fear that his life was leaving him,” as well as the unaccountable hilarity of Wertham and Bleuler’s subject, suggests a similar value, if any, in the study of manic-depressive psychoses too. No doubt psychoses may be exteriorized with increased facility in peyote intoxication, but this strikes one as a crude method and subject to the introduction of extraneous factors over which there is no control.[38]

Hutchings used pellotine as a hypnotic on psychotic patients in the St. Lawrence State Hospital. Pilcz likewise reports this use of peyote as a sedative for the insane, but Warburg states that these experiments have met with little success, on account of the by-effects of the alkaloids. Dr. Goodall of the Carmarthen Asylum, according to Havelock Ellis, tried peyote on melancholic and stuporous patients, but “beyond dilation of pupils and rapidity [!] of heart action, the results were nil.” Martindale and Westcott report that formerly peyote was used in neurasthenia, hysteria and asthma; it is hard to see in some cases where the cure is any superior to the disease, however. Briau employed peyote in “anxiety states,” but the extremely variable emotional states under peyote intoxication make even tentative conclusions precarious.[39] Indeed, peyote would be calculated to aggravate asthma and anxiety states under some circumstances!

Bensheim found different mescal reactions in cycloids and schizoids, but Wertham and Bleuler somewhat surprisingly discovered both reactions in a single person, and argued for the inconstancy of the formal structure of the “personality.” Probably, however, peyote had no definitive importance in either case though the former used only mescaline and the latter pan-peyotl. Zucker induced mescaline intoxication in the hallucinated insane, but far too many variables appear to be involved here. Zador conducted experiments on the blind and patients with disordered vision, using mescaline, the chief hallucination-producing alkaloid of peyote. Klüver discussed color predominance in reported visions (red-green in the initial phases, blue-yellow later). This suggests selective action of the alkaloids on various regions of the retina, evidence bearing on the Ladd-Franklin phylogenetic theory of color vision. Possibly, too, colors predominant in peyote-symbolisms of natives may have a physiological meaning. Klüver’s “form-constants” in peyote-intoxication may have similar significance, but he dealt largely with White visions only.[40]

PEYOTE AS A DRUG

Of more concern, however, to those who interest themselves in the welfare of Indians is the possible ill effect or habit-forming nature of the drug. On this point we quote the opinions of those better qualified than the writer to speak.

Briau,[41] in his psychiatric study, emphasized

the innocuousness of peyote.... No signs of grave intolerance
were ever exhibited, nor any accident more disagreeable than
vomiting, all too frequent at the beginning of a treatment
with opiates. There was no notable organic upsetment produced
during the time of action of the medicament. The effects on
the circulation, respiration, digestive system and excretory
functions have not appeared noxious. We have frequently
examined urine for the existence of abnormal constituents
revealing some derangement of the liver or the kidneys. In
short, never during our researches have distressing secondary
phenomena been manifested (headache, obnubilation, confusion,
psychic and physical depression, or gastro-intestinal
disturbances).... No brutality in the action [of pan-peyotl]
can be remarked.

Briau believes the drug non-habit forming. Rouhier expresses himself more guardedly:

That peyote-mania can sometimes exist, we will not dispute.
We merely remark, to explain our optimism on the subject,
that the drug does not seem to provoke that irresistible
physiological appetite, nor that “state of need,” purveyors of
the great toxicomanias which opium, cocaine, heroine or alcohol
create.

Havelock Ellis expresses himself as follows:

The few observations recorded in America and my own experiments
in England do not enable us to say anything regarding the
habitual consumption of mescal in large amounts. That such
consumption would be gravely injurious I cannot doubt. Its
safeguard seems to lie in the fact that a certain degree of
robust health is required to obtain any real enjoyment from its
visionary gifts.

The last statement is somewhat gratuitous, if not erroneous.[42]

Hrdlička[43] writes as follows:

My views ... are that any substance which is capable of
producing such effects on the brain and nervous system if
abused is bound to produce harm. Fortunately peyotl is rather
scarce, is used on special occasions only—in a large majority
of cases—and thus it is probably quite free from any permanent
injury.[44] The drug can perhaps be likened to nicotine,
and like the latter will doubtless not affect different
individuals to the same degree. Also, as with nicotine, it
may be quite impossible with our present means to detect the
harm it has done. Besides which it is quite possible that the
system may build up some resistance or safeguard against it and
thus prevent any substantial injury. I should by no means join
myself to those who see in it any _great_ danger.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Rouhier, _Monographie_, 231.

[2] Kobert, _Lehrbuch_, 1008-1009; Rouhier, _op. cit._, 227; Henry (T. A.), _The Plant Alkaloids_, 199: Dixon (W. E.), _The Physiological Action_, 71. Rouhier (_op. cit._, 228, 231) places peyotline in the strychnine group; it has a narcotic and tetanic effect on animals, to be sure, but in man, according to Jolly, it causes slight hypnosis, but no anaesthesia. Schmiedeberg puts it in the morphine group, which we have followed (cf. Kobert, _Lehrbuch_, 1009).

[3] Henry (T. A.), _The Plant Alkaloids_, 199; Rouhier, _op. cit._, 238; Dixon (W. E.), _The Physiological Action_, 71.

[4] Condensed from Rouhier, _op. cit._, 227-32. Note “pellotine” is the same as “peyotline.”

[5] Henry, _loc. cit._ Staub and Grassmann (_Über die Wirkungsgrenze_, 336) state, in dogs, increased heart-beat and pressure.

[6] Rouhier, _op. cit._, 231. I have modified and added to Rouhier’s classifications. Ellis (_Mescal: A New Artificial Paradise_) describes the effects on the central nervous system as “acute cerebrasthenia.” The lethal dose of anhalonine hydrochloride for rabbits is 0.16 to 0.2 grams per kilogram of body weight; lophophorine kills frogs by a dose of only 0.011 grams per kilogram of body weight. (Henry, _op. cit._, 199).

[7] Dixon (W. E.), _The Physiological Action_, 79-81. Rouhier (_op. cit._, 268-69): “Intoxication by peyote in man comprises two very distinct phases, one, general superexcitement, contentment; euphoria, the other of nervous sedation, of more or less accentuated physical indolence, and of hypocerebrality; this last phase is almost entirely filled with the production of color-visions.” Henry (_op. cit._, 199) likens this preliminary stage to alcoholic intoxication.

[8] Fernberger (_Observations_, 270) mentions “a very clear but rapidly changing focus of attention”; see also his _Further Observations_, 367. Crichtly (_Some Forms_, 102) notes the “rapidity of change,” though visions “lasted many hours.” It is in this that the “indescribability” of the visions lies (Ellis, _Mescal: A New Artificial Paradise_).

[9] Fernberger (_Observations_, 269) notes “distortion of time and space”; and (_Further Observations_, 367) a “grave upsetting of space and time ... space was extremely extended and time extremely slowed.” Maggendorfer (_Intoxikationspsychosen_, 355-56) notes for mescaline a time and space derangement, similar to those in other “intoxikationpsychosen.” Crichtly (_op. cit._, 105) describes micropsia and megalopsia, or gravely deranged perception of size.

[10] In these careful statements by Dixon (on a subject not notable for the accuracy of all observers) many physiological bases for ethnographic observations I have made may be found, e.g., the mistaking in a Kiowa meeting of the medicine-man Tonakat by an informant for a hideous alligator-like monster; he believed then he had seen this witch “for what he was.”

[11] The writer testifies to the accuracy of Dixon’s somewhat amazing statement. So marked have been the physical effects of the first stage of intoxication, that when these pass off to give rise to the feeling of physiological normality (introspectively), one almost has a distrust of the existence of these spectacular mental displays particularly if the observer is of a markedly non-“psychic” or skeptical cast of mind. The visions arise in the midst of a psychological state I can only describe as one of perfectly plausible “epistemological orientation,” sometimes acutely felt in alcoholic intoxication. The feeling of dissociation with this unfamiliar and spectacular side of one’s peyote-intoxication experience has suggested to some observers incipient schizoid psychoses. Small wonder natives often exhibit curiously ambivalent attitudes toward their visions, and sometimes explicitly reject and disclaim them as “bad,” the result of trickery by the peyote power (“he’s testing me”) or by some human witch present. Hoebel in conversation has insisted on the Northern Cheyenne attitude of suspicion of peyote’s “trickiness.” But I wholly disagree with Havelock Ellis and others who have argued for the “ineffability” of visions, and even less do I see in peyote-intoxication any approach to the mystical state of the epistemological _convincingness_ of the _visions_. It is this _concomitant_ state of seeming objectiveness and reality-orientation which accounts for the marked feeling of duality. On this point, cf. Drs. Monakow and Morgue: “[Peyote produces] a particular state of dreaming, without losing, relatively, the idea of orientation, accompanied by pseudo-hallucinatory phenomena.”

[12] Ellis (_Mescal: A Study of a Divine Plant_, 60) reports a “vague olfactory hallucination”; Fernberger (_Observations_, 269) and the writer have noticed kinaesthetic derangements which have parallels in native visions. Hearing is very acute (Fernberger, _ibid._; _Further Observations_, 371), but subject to hallucination and synaesthetic derangement.

[13] Some fifty native peyote “visions” were collected in the original dissertation from which this paper is derived.

[14] Rouhier, _op. cit._, 315, fig. 44; Ellis, _Mescal; A Study_, 68; Crichtly, _Some Forms_, 106.

[15] Dixon (W. E.), _The Physiological Action_, 81.

[16] Based largely on Dixon and Rouhier, with additional data from Jaensch, Wiley, Crichtly, Prentiss and Morgan, Ellis, Fernberger, Wertham and Bleuler, Lewin, Maggendorfer, Staub and Grassmann.

[17] Rouhier, _op. cit._, 232. But Dixon writes, “In man the nervous effects are extremely interesting, but on account of the respiratory depression which is liable to occur it is not desirable to experiment too freely; it is necessary to remember that this substance, like Indian hemp, varies considerably in its effects on different individuals, and that the element of idiosyncrasy is marked.”

[18] Wertham and Bleuler, _Inconstancy of the Formal Structure of the Personality_. The general thesis of these experimenters was that personality types might be studied as they were exteriorized in mescaline intoxication via the Rorschach test. One of the observers described two personalities in a normal subject in two periods of intoxication, not knowing that it was the same person. They conclude, interestingly: “It is suggested that these observations indicate that the form of a personality is not a constant, but that it may be influenced by outer circumstances, and that the usual psychologic ‘type’ of a person does not necessarily exhaust the description of the formal structure of his personality.”

[19] “What an excellent use for a medical congress,” Sir Francis Galton dryly wrote Havelock Ellis (_Mescal: A Study_, 71, note), “to put one half of their members under mescal, and to make the other half observe them.”

[20] Lumholtz, _Unknown Mexico_, 1: 359; cf. _Explorations in Mexique_, 181-82. It is a curious west-European mode of reasoning that leads one to expect in all psychic upsetments such as this the emergence of the sexual anxiety—more particularly in the case of peyote intoxication, which provokes marked fall of heart-beat, physical and mental depression at one stage, uncomfortable “stomach fullness” and acute nausea!

[21] Wertham and Bleuler, 60. The presence of prior suggestion is blatantly obvious. Cf. Karwoski, 212: “To the sexologist an easy way of obliterating temporarily the genital response is offered since mescal is a powerful anaphrodisiac.... My own experience confirms the anaphrodisiac properties of mescal, but the fact that under its influence I found my imagination turning to erotic situations, although temporarily impotent, is an illustration of the persistence of conditioning that offers an interesting suggestion with reference to the extirpation experiments reported in the controversy over the James-Lange theory of emotions.” Unfortunately, _culture_ cannot be extirpated.

[22] Fernberger, _Further Observations_, 368. But Fernberger misunderstood his informant, Petrullo, who (_The Diabolic Root_, 8, note) of course disclaims this statement from “which” on.

[23] Field workers protest privately, but not often enough explicitly, against the projection of these culturally- and personally-subjective values into other cultures. The envisaging of primitive cultures as unspoiled Arcadias where one’s frustrated dreams for one’s own culture come true, is at least as old as Tacitus’ “Germania,” and is still going on, not alone among laymen.

[24] We repeat that results _either positive or negative_ for white observers have no bearing on the problem as regards natives, as this problem is cultural.

[25] Fernberger, _Further Observations_, 377.

[26] All but one vomited.

[27] It is scarcely surprising that one does not find in Indian ceremonies what is not there.

[28] Had Fernberger investigated such of his predecessors as Lumholtz, the novelty of his results would have impressed him less. And had his experiments been more critical he would not be superfluously supplied with an “explanation” to a problem where no data to be explained exist (compare the a-priorism of the “parapsychologists”). But Fernberger continues: “For every one of the observers the anti-aphrodisiac effect of the drug was marked and continued, in most cases, for at least 24 hours after the period of intoxication. Efforts at erotic stimulation proved ineffective. In several cases physical automanipulation of the genitals failed to produce the usual physiological effect. The calling up of erotic images—visual and verbal—were equally ineffective.”

[29] An able and sincere field worker has told the writer of an experience at a meeting which ended for him in orgasm. But he would agree that detailing of similar White “aphrodisiac” experiences is edifying more as regards individuals than the drug. This paper aims to deal with the _native_ peyote cult.

[30] Klüver, _Mescal, the Divine Plant_, 101; but peyote is a complex of physiologically antagonistic drugs of quite variable reaction.

[31] Jolly, _Über die schlafmachende; Über Pellotine_, 375-76. This effect is all the more remarkable since Heffter in similar experiments noted that pellotine produced in the frog excitability and reflex tetanus.

[32] Heffter, _Über Pellotin_, 327-28.

[33] Loaeza, in del Campo, _Peyote_, 145. Koang-Hobschette (_Les Cactacées_, 41) says cactine, the active element of _Cereus grandiflorus_ Mill. is used like digitalis as a cardio-tonic, strengthening the systole and diminishing the diastole like strychnine.

[34] Henry (T. A.), _The Plant Alkaloids_, 199.

[35] Rouhier, _Monographie_, 340.

[36] Parke Davis and Co. formerly manufactured the drug. See their _Newer Pharmacology_.

[37] But not to all persons! The typical over-enthusiasm with which new materia medica are received is itself an interesting ethnographic commentary. Prentiss and Morgan (_Therapeutic Uses_, 4-5) prescribed it variously for “cramps, griping and colic ... [and] nervous headache” as well as “tickling in the throat.” They also report (_The Alkaloids of Anhalonium_, 123-37) uses by other doctors. Two brothers, doctors, prescribed peyote for their brother who was suffering from “softening of the brain.” He died a few months later, uncured. Nevertheless, they prescribed peyote for their sister, who was “very low and out of her head;” she later recovered. Richardson (D. A.), (_A Report_, 194-95) reports still more spectacular sequelae. He administered peyote to a man with “frontal cephalalgia.” “Especially would I remark,” he says, “on the clearing of the skin of pimples over the chest and back, and a marked softening of the hair, which before the exhibition of the anhalonium was dry, with a tendency to break easily.” It nevertheless also decreased the abnormal oiliness of the skin. Further, he thought it was a solvent for uric acid, likely to be of value for stones in the bladder. Lastly, “In my opinion, anhalonium is a superior cardiac tonic, and, like nitroglycerine, its effects are prolonged after the administration of the drug is withdrawn.”

The efficacy of peyote in native doctoring seems as little established also. Reasons of ethnographic nature have already been cited for doubting the anti-alcoholic virtue of peyote. Indeed, the leader of one meeting I attended I visited in jail later in the week; he had been arrested for drunken street-fighting. I could uncharitably cite half-a-dozen similar cases, but it seems amply enough demonstrated that there is no relation of exclusiveness between peyotism and alcoholism.

[38] Klüver, _Mescal, The “Divine” Plant_, 97, 108. Prentiss and Morgan, _Anhalonium Lewinii_, 581; Wertham and Bleuler, _Inconstancy in the Formal Structure_, 52, 60.

[39] Hutchings, in Heffter, _Ueber Pellote_, 409; Pilcz, _Ueber Pellotin_, 1121-22; Warburg, in Bennett and Zingg, _The Tarahumara_, 136; Ellis, _Mescal: A Study_, 71; Martindale and Westcott, _The Extra Pharmacopoeia_, 1:836; Briau, in Koang-Hobschette, _Les Cactacées_. Karwoski (_Psychophysics_, 212) suggests that peyote might heighten rapport in psychoanalysis; cf. Deschamps.

[40] Bensheim, _Typenunterschiede_, 121; Wertham and Bleuler, _Inconstancy in the Formal Structure_, 70; Zucker, _Versuche_, 107; Zador, _Meskalinwirkung bei Störung_, 30; _Meskalinwirkung_; Klüver, _Mescal, The “Divine” Plant_, 36-39, 41; Ladd-Franklin, _Colour and Colour-Theories_, _passim_.

[41] Briau, in Koang-Hobschette, _Les Cactacées_, 73-74; Rouhier, _Le Peyotl_, 337; Ellis, _Mescal: A New Artificial Paradise_, 141.

[42] An editorial _Paradise or Inferno?_ (Editorial, 390) sharply rebuked Ellis for the attractiveness which he had ascribed to mescal intoxication, basing the criticism on grounds of medical ethics.

[43] Letter to Schultes, Feb. 21, 1936. My own experience leads me fully to endorse Hrdlička’s careful statement. Elsewhere in the text are cited numerous cases of natives who, in good faith I believe, gave up the use of peyote entirely upon the rising of special or acute anxieties. My informants, on the other hand, quite as frankly admitted that there were some individuals who showed signs of addiction, in the sense that they consumed the plant often and abundantly, but these are not clear uncomplicated instances of drug-addiction; I trust such native candor implicitly. Besides, peyote is not wholly pleasant (“You must suffer to peyote”).

[44] The issue of the native religious use of the drug is indeed a complex one. But whatever else may be said, it is only fair to the Indians to state that the bitterest and most unmeasured condemnations of the drug have issued from quarters which are scarcely disinterested. Whatever the merits of the case, those persons are concerned with the deculturation of the Indian, and see in the peyote religion a formidable obstacle to their progress in inducting the native into modern life. The doubtless good intentions of such persons have on occasion, however, led them into errors of judgment when, for instance, they would argue that peyotism is merely out-and-out drug addiction in religious guise (e.g. Daiker, Hughes, Newberne and Burke, Seymour, Watermulder, and the writers in the Indian Rights Association and Literary Digest articles;) Lindquist, for example, feels free to commit numerous errors of fact yet still pontificate on the “false gods” of “the cult of Death” which is “nothing but an evil” (_The Red Man_, 72, 73, 75). For, given the Plains religious and ideological background, the peyote cult is entirely plausible as a religion, and the issue is properly one of religious freedom.

The intellectual “authority” in west European culture is, of course, the empirical and pragmatic (or putatively), while that of the Indian in this religion, as elsewhere, can correctly be termed mystical, if we understand by this a super-normal knowledge-technique transcending ordinary epistemological considerations. For there can be no shadow of a doubt concerning the deep and humble sincerity of the worship and belief—and sincerity perhaps, even in the absence of other ingredients, is the chief component of a living religion. And if the chief function of a religion is the liquidation of the anxieties and the solution of the fears and troubles of its adherents, then surely the peyote religion eminently qualifies as such.

The issue then balances somewhat delicately on the point of “authority,” which is really at bottom a matter of comparative ethnography. If, as we believe, the scientific is truly the most mature knowledge-technique man has yet perfected, then facile and off-hand condemnation of peyotism on its basis is even less possible. Aside from the probable ultimate disappearance of the Native American Church, a generous and libertarian philosophy would condemn present attacks on it as often misguided and even oftener uninformed. The chief human difficulty in the world today is the adjustment of one culture to another, of one absolutistic ideology and Weltanschauung to another. But the scientific spirit itself would protest against the dictatorship of any one ideology, of whatever sort; there is too much chance that any self-contained scheme be dangerously wrong, when unchecked by modifying differing beliefs. Science, indeed, has been lifted above the level of folklore precisely because the spectacle of variously conditioned culture-historical outlooks has necessitated self-criticism and an objective comparative survey of beliefs. A fetishistic attitude toward science and its tentative pronouncements, therefore, is itself folkloristic in tone. This however, is not to suggest any distrust in the ability of the scientific method to obtain such sound results as have been so far achieved; but it is intended to point out the real limitations in our information.

Although the best modern scientific knowledge would indicate that the alkaloids in peyote do not perform the manifold therapeutic miracles which natives ascribe to it, one might still well wonder whether harsh sumptuary laws would not work more positive hardship and harm than the drug itself. If not the injustice then certainly the inexpedience of such exercise of civil authority has been amply demonstrated in the Eighteenth Amendment and its sorry consequences. We may not presume therefore to judge what should be the administrative fate of the peyote cult. The emotional and ideological side of the religion is not open to judgement; and on the properly scientific and physiological side of the question the simple fact is that we actually don’t know enough about it.

APPENDIX 7: JOHN WILSON, THE REVEALER OF PEYOTE

The life and career of a remarkable individual were successively involved in the several traditions of the Ghost Dance, mescalism, old Algonquian shamanistic “shooting” ceremonies and finally peyotism. Both for its intrinsic interest and its historical significance we give here in some detail the life of this man. Wilson appears first as a leader in the Ghost Dance movement of the 1890’s. Mooney[1] writes: