Chapter III: Part 3

At the west center, horns to the east, is the crescent altar[96] (piέtᴅω) with a groove or “path” (ɢ’ωmhoṇ) along it from horn to horn, interrupted by a flat space in the center where the “father peyote” is later to rest on sprigs of sage. The “path” symbolizes man’s path from birth (southern tip) to the crest of maturity and knowledge (at the place of the peyote) and thence downward again to the ground through old age to death (northern tip). The crescent, carefully shaped beforehand by the fireman out of clayey earth, also represents the mountain range of the origin story where sęmąyi or “Peyote Woman” first discovered the plant. East of it in a shelving depression is a fire, constantly mended by the “fire-chief” during the night to keep it in a worm-fence arrangement, the closest approximation to the ritual crescent-shape possible with straight sticks. The accumulating ashes are shaped with great care into another crescent between fire and altar. A “smokestick”[97] is kept smoldering in an east-west position close to the fire to light all cigarettes.

All seated, the leader places the father peyote on the sage sprigs, orienting it by the thorn or mark made when he cut it.[98] After this the ceremony is considered begun, all informal talking and joking ceases, and others entering are late-comers. Everyone begins to stare at the fetish peyote and the flickering fire.[99] Then the leader leans his eagle-humerus whistle against the west outside of the moon, mouth end up, takes out his cedar incense bag, gourd, tobacco, etc., and arranges them conveniently near him.

The first ceremony is smoking or praying together. The leader makes himself a cigarette of Bull Durham with corn husk “papers” dried and cut to shape, and passes the makings clockwise to the rest, including women.[100] His own made, the fireman presents the smokestick to the leader (who may first offer it courteously to his drummer) and this too is passed to the left. While all smoke, the leader prays: “beha´be sęį´ᴅɔki (smoke, peyote power). Be with us when we pray tonight. Tell your father to look at us and listen to our prayers.” He holds his cigarette mouth end toward the peyote and motions upward that it may smoke as he prays:

We are just beginning our prayer meeting. We want you to be
with us tonight and help us. We want no one to be sick at this
meeting from eating peyote. I will pause again at midnight to
pray to you. I will pause again in the morning to pray to you.
[Then he prays for the person who is sick or whose birthday the
meeting celebrates or for relatives and participants.] If there
are any rules connected with you, peyote, that we don’t know
of, forgive us if we should break them, as we are ignorant.

All pray silently to ᴅómᴅɔki, “earth-creator” or “earth-lord,” and older men may add their prayers aloud after the leader. Then, following the leader, all snuff their cigarettes in the ground and place them on the west curve of the altar, outside, or at either horn; the fireman may gather those of women, old people or visitors.

The incense-blessing ceremony immediately follows. The leader (or his “cedar-man”) sprinkles some dried and rubbed cedar on the fire; then he makes four clockwise motions of the peyote bag toward the fire, takes out four buttons and passes the bag. Kneeling on both knees, he reaches down beneath the hides or blankets of the seat, and bruises a tuft of sage between his palms, and smelling it with deep inhalations, rubs his hands over and down his head, breast, shoulders and arms, with outward downward movements, ending with the thighs. Though the peyote may not yet have reached them, the others follow suit, reaching out their palms to absorb the blessing of the incense and rubbing themselves.

This done, all eat[101] their peyote, to the accompaniment of much spitting out of the woolly center of the buttons; hereafter during the night in the intermissions of singing, anyone can call for the peyote bag (the incense burning may or may not be repeated). Then more cedar is sprinkled on the fire and the leader makes four motions with the staff in his left hand and the rattle in his right toward the rising incense smoke.[102] The drummer motions similarly with the drumstick, pulling smoke from the fire to the drum. The leader takes a bunch of sagebrush from between the tipi-cover and pole behind him (previously prepared by the fireman), holds it with his staff and the singing begins.[103] The drummer shifts his left thumb over the drumhead or sloshes the water inside on it or blows on it to get the proper tension and tone, then the leader holds his staff and sage at arm’s length between himself and the fire and rattles for the Hayätinayo or Opening Song.[104] The leader exchanges his staff and rattle for the drum the latter always passing _under_ the staff,[105] and the drummer sings four songs of his own choosing. The paraphernalia, staff preceding drum, are then passed to the left; each man sings to the drumming of the man on his right, and then himself drums for the man on his left.[106] This singing, rattling, and drumming forms the bulk of the ceremony during the night. At intervals older men pray aloud, with affecting sincerity, often with tears running down their cheeks, their voices choked with emotion, and their bodies swaying with earnestness as they gesture and stretch out their arms to invoke the aid of Peyote. The tone is of a poor and pitiful person humbly asking the aid and pity of a great power, and absolutely no shame whatever is felt by anyone when a grown man breaks down into loud sobbing during his prayer.[107]

About midnight the leader announces that he is going to put incense on the fire after the next four songs, and when he does, everyone blesses himself in the smoke. The announcement gives the fireman time to mend the fire and build up the ash moon[108] and sweep the cigarette butts into the fire. If the paraphernalia are north of the door they are passed backwards to the leader drum first, if at the south (i.e. past the door) clockwise and staff first as usual. Smoking stops, and the leader, to the drumming of his assistant, sings the Midnight Song.[109] When the first of the four is finished, the fireman (sometimes given a feather for this errand by the leader) leaves, gets a bucket of water, returns, sets it in front of the fire and unfolds a blanket on which he sits in line with it facing west. The leader, finishing the second song, blows four increasingly loud blasts on the eagle wing-bone whistle (to imitate the water bird) then replaces it by the peyote and sings the last two songs. While his assistant holds the staff and gourd, he spreads an altar cloth just west of the fetish, and places on this the staff, gourd, sage and his fan, together with the “feathers” of communicants passed to him for this purpose; the drum is to the south of this, the drumstick, etc., on the cloth.

After cedar-incensing, the fireman makes a smoke, puffs four times and prays, thanking those responsible for the honor of being chosen fire-chief, and praying for the leader and his family, the sick and the absent. Next the leader prays, then the drummer, using the same cigarette, and to complete the figure of a cross, the man to the north or “cedar-man” prays. When the butt is placed by the altar, the fireman makes a circuit of the altar and passes the bucket to the man south of the door. Quiet conversation is permitted in the somewhat informal drinking period.[110] When the fireman has drunk, the leader passes back the fans and the paraphernalia to where the singing had been interrupted, and leaves the tipi. He goes about thirty feet east of the tipi, whistles four times and prays, repeating this at the south, west and north.[111] When four songs are completed, he returns, blessing himself in the incense smoke which the drummer throws on the fire.[112] Now is the preferred time to leave the tipi and stretch cramped legs. Singing continues as before until dawn.

As the first grey light appears, the leader tells the fireman to waken or notify the woman who is to bring the water (she has no special seat, if she has attended the meeting). The fireman always brings the midnight water, a woman that at dawn.[113] The leader whistles four times, even in the middle of a song, when the fireman tells him she has arrived outside. When the singer finishes his four songs, the leader calls for the paraphernalia and sings the four Morning Songs; after the first of these the woman enters, arranges a blanket and sits as did the fireman. Finishing the three remaining songs, the leader calls for feathers and spreads them with the paraphernalia on the altar cloth, as at midnight. A smoke is made for the woman, who thereupon prays, after which the leader and his assistants smoke it. Doctoring[114] is best done at this time; the leader may do this, or he may ask an older man to fan the patient with consecrated feathers from the altar cloth.

Then the fireman spills a little water before the fire, the woman drinks, and the bucket moves clockwise as before from south of the door. The woman makes a circuit of the altar, picks up her blanket and takes the bucket out. The feathers are passed out again, and the paraphernalia returned to the place of the next singers in the circle (because of such ritual interruptions, praying, passing of peyote, etc., a complete round of the drum requires two or three hours).

While waiting for the ritual breakfast, the meeting is again somewhat informal. Several women may leave to help the water-woman prepare the food, and younger men may go outside for a stroll and a secular smoke. Old men often lecture younger members on behavior at this time, “preaching” directly to a relative, and more indirectly to others.[115] When he has finished another old man may exhort: “You must do as that old man has said. He’s had experience. What he’s telling you is good.” At this time too visitors are given opportunity to express gratitude for the hospitality of their host, who in turn thanks them for coming.

When the food arrives outside, the fireman notifies the leader, who calls for the paraphernalia and sings four songs, the last of which is the Quitting Song. The food meanwhile is passed in and placed in line with the father-peyote and fire, west-to-east thus: water, parched corn in syrup, fruit and meat.[116] No one sits east of it as in the water ceremonies. The four songs completed, the leader tells the drummer to unlace the drum, and all the paraphernalia are passed around (between the food and the fire at the east) for everyone to handle,[117] as an older woman (“because food is their life-work”) or a Ten-Medicine keeper, who typically functions at such Kiowa group-prayers, asks a blessing. The leader then removes the father peyote from the altar, and when he puts it in his satchel with the rest of the paraphernalia the meeting is ended.

Complete social informality now reigns as the food is passed to the man south of the door and thence clockwise. Much joking[118] goes on during this meal, which has none of the seriousness of the Christian partaking of the Host. When the fireman has finished eating, at the leader’s instruction, he leads the line out of the tipi.[119] The tipi may be taken down immediately, or moved bodily a little, but the older men drift back into its shade and lie around talking and exchanging peyote experiences.[120] As meetings are ordinarily held on Saturday nights, Sunday forenoon is free for such visiting, talking and dozing under arbors. Nearly everyone stays for a secular dinner at noon, and they take home what they cannot eat; sometimes other guests come who have not attended the meeting.

COMPARISON OF MEXICAN, TRANSITIONAL, AND PLAINS PEYOTISM

Having now characterized the Huichol-Tarahumari type-rite for Mexico, the Lipan-Mescalero for the transitional nomad Southwest, and the Kiowa-Comanche as the historical prototype for the Plains, we may attempt a comparison and contrasting of them.

In Mexico as a whole “curing” is perhaps the most salient characteristic, while both curing and doctoring are conspicuous in Mescalero. In the Plains, while doctoring is an important feature it is by no means indispensable.[121] Peyotism in Mexico, therefore, has a tribal character, while in Mescalero the ceremony is a _forum for rival shamans_—a trait not altogether absent in early Plains rites—and in the Plains peyotism has a societal nature. These facts have an important bearing on the cultural manifestations of the physiological action of peyote. In Mexico visions are turned to the uses of prophecy;[122] in Mescalero they enable a shaman to detect rival witchcraft; while in the Plains, visions are a source of individual power. These categories should not be made too rigid, however, for clairvoyance, if not prophecy, as well as witchcraft anxiety are known for early Plains peyotism, and on the other hand, peyote medicine-power is a source of Mescalero shamanistic rivalry. Yet as indications of relative emphasis these statements might be allowed to stand.

The Mexican symbolisms point to an association with hunting, agriculture and gathering activities, and the typical anxiety expressed in the religion is the desire for rain. In Mescalero, peyote is the focal point for the warfare of antagonistic powers, and expresses the mutual suspicion of formerly small local groups; the intense and ever-present anxiety is the fear of aggression and reprisal by witchcraft. In the early Plains peyote ceremonies, associations with warfare were prominent (influenced no doubt by a forerunner of peyotism there, the mescal bean ceremonialism), though in later times this element had become so nearly absent that Mooney could point quite properly to the “international” character of the cult in his time.[123]

Areal contrasts in minor points are no less striking. Dancing was conspicuous in Mexico, less important transitionally, and on the whole lacking in the Plains. Painting of a symbolic nature was ritually significant in Mexico; in the Plains individual styles were dictated by peyote visions. Peyotism in Mexico is a seasonal matter, but in the Plains the rite occurs the year around (in the south the trip for peyote may have been associated more with the ritual salt pilgrimage, in the north with the ritualized war journeys; parallels are also suggested in the Maricopa ritualized mountain-sheep hunting and Navaho deer hunting).

In Mexico peyote was a tribal affair and women participated on equal terms with the men in dancing, etc. In Mescalero, women were excluded from meetings, as in the Plains also originally. The rite was held principally outdoors in Mexico, and in a tipi transitionally and in the Plains—a patio arrangement in Mexico, and an altar centering around the “moon” in the Plains. Ritual racing and ball games[124] are part of Mexican peyotism, but not elsewhere. Smoking is inconspicuous in Mexico, but in the Plains it has been important enough to involve church schisms.[125] Huichol peyote had no drum, though elsewhere in Mexico a wooden drum was used, while in the Plains the water-drum (intrusive from the Southwest) is universal. The rasp is Mexican, but the Plains rite has the gourd rattle and eagle wing-bone whistle in addition to the drum. The “staff” is a special problem in the Plains.

The Huichol and Tarahumari have a squirrel fetish in addition to the fetish plant; the Plains have only the latter. Ceremonial drunkenness with tesvino, etc., is an integral part of Mexican “curing”; in the Plains peyote and alcohol are so far mutually exclusive that the familiar propaganda calls the first a specific against the second. The alleged aphrodisiac virtue of peyote is a Mexican belief; but curiously enough in Mexico, where many “peyotes” were said by natives to be aphrodisiac, Lumholtz pronounced _Lophophora williamsii_ definitely anaphrodisiac; while in the Plains, where the natives most strenuously deny this virtue for peyote, enemies of the cult most consistently claim that it produces aphrodisiac orgies.[126]

In Mexico the shaman alone sings, though his assistants may “spell” him; in the Plains all male participants drum and rattle. In Mescalero, though the drum circles the tipi, the staff and gourd remain with the leader. Finally, Mexican and Mescalero peyotism are almost wholly free of Christian elements; so too were the early Plains rites diffusing from the Kiowa-Comanche, though in the John Wilson rite, the Oto Church of the First-born (and its successor, the Native American Church) and the Winnebago Rave-Hensley variant, Christian symbolism and interpretations are frequent.

Common elements are numerous: the ceremonial trip for peyote (more elaborate in Mexico, to be sure), the meeting held at night, the fetish peyote, the use of feathers and the abundance of symbolisms connected with birds, the ritual circuit, ceremonial fire and incensing, water ceremonies, the “Peyote Woman,” morning “baptism” or “curing” rites, “talking” peyote, abstinence from salt, ritual breakfast, singing, tobacco ceremonials, public confession of sins, Morning Star symbolisms, and (for northern Mexico) the crescent moon[127] altar. The fear of being blinded by the peyote-fuzz is Mescalero, Lipan and Plains, and the water-drum is shared by both non-peyote Southwestern groups and those of the Plains who have the peyote rite. The use of parched corn in sugar water, boneless, sweetened meat and fruit for the “peyote breakfast” may be regarded as universal for peyotism, wherever found.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Rouhier (_Monographie_, 91, n. 1) argues immense antiquity for peyotism, _circa_ 300 years B.C., among the Chichimeca on quasi-historical grounds. Our knowledge of peyote from Spanish documents goes back to the sixteenth century in Mexico. A manuscript in the Library of Congress reports the trial of a Taos Indian, February 3-8, 1719, for having “taken peyote and disturbed the town” (cf. Twitchell, _Spanish Archives_, 2:188). See Bandelier, _Manuscript_; Mooney, _Tarumari-Guayachic_.

[2] Adapted from Lewin, _Phantastica_, 96, and Nicolás de León in Brinton, _Nagualism_, 6.

[3] Hernandez, _De Historia Plantarum_, 3:70.

[4] Arlegui, _Crónica_, 2:154-55 in Urbina, _El Peyote y el Ololiuhqui_, 26.

[5] Prieto, _Historia y Estadistica_, 123-24, in Mooney, _Peyote Notebook_.

[6] Alarcón, _Tratado de los supersticiones_, 195.

[7] Lindquist, _The Red Man_, 70-71, is in error in stating that the Zuñi use peyote for religious purposes; moreover the document of 1720 cited refers to Taos, not Zuñi. Mr. An-che Li assures me that the Zuñi lack peyote even today. Lindquist has evidently confused peyote with datura; see for example Safford, _Narcotic Plants_, 405, 406. Still other plants, e.g., datura, cohoba snuff, coca, yahé, aya-huasca, etc., were used in Middle America as prophetic aids; see for example Safford, _op. cit._, 393; Gayton, _Narcotic Plant Datura_.

[8] Bennett and Zingg (_The Tarahumara_, 135) write that “in a culture where animals are thought to talk and cattle are supposed to warn their masters of impending drought or plague, it is not surprising that plants also are imbued with personality and harmful or helpful attributes. The small ball of cacti is especially revered by the Tarahumara.” Some _Mammillaria_ spp. have a striking resemblance to a head of hair; one figured in Higgins with flowing white “hair” is called “Old Man Cactus”; again, natives have an intense fear of even touching these plants—an attitude recalling the Pima belief that even one drop of Apache blood falling on a person would make him ill (Hrdlička, _Physiological and Medical Observations_, 243). In this connection it is interesting to note that Spier has collected evidence bearing on the magical use of enemies’ scalps. The magical malevolence of the enemy or his scalp is cited (_Warfare_) for the Maricopa, Yuman and Piman groups, Navaho, Jicarilla, and Pueblo. The Yumans and Pimans required stringent purification from contact with the enemy or his scalp; the Pimans, again, along with the Navaho and Pueblos turned this power to account in curing and rain-bringing. Spier states that for the Pima-Papago the scalp is turned into an ally against the enemy, and made a specific prophylactic against such enemy-engendered dangers as paralysis, swooning at the sight of blood or a violent death; the Maricopa, indeed, convert a scalp into one of themselves, much as a captive is ceremonially converted and purified. Further still, according to Spier, the Maricopa and Yumans received prophetic foreknowledge of the enemy from these scalps, which therefore they carried with them to war. Still more strikingly, scalps are thought to laugh and cry and babble incessantly, much as the noisily talkative peyote plant is supposed to do.

[9] Lumholtz, _Tarahumari Dances_, 452; also _Unknown Mexico_, 1:372-74.

[10] Spier (_Warfare_) writes that “Clairvoyance on the part of the shaman who accompanied a war party is noted for Maricopa, Yuma, Pima, and Papago [as well as] in the Plains and Plateau.” Zuñi war chiefs, he adds, sought sound-omens on the eve of setting out on the war-path. In this last connection the detailed similarities in attitude and conduct of war-expeditions, peyote-pilgrimages, and salt-gathering expeditions in Mexico and the Southwest should not be overlooked. (The Huichol shooting of the peyote plant, however, is a hunting rather than a war symbolism, that of hunting the hikuli-deer of the peyote origin legend.) Information on the Comanche horse-raid is from E. A. Hoebel; unfortunately the Government took most of these peyote-given horses back again.

In the 1850’s the only Kiowa who ate peyote was Big Horse. When he wished to know the whereabouts of an absent war party he would take a drum and a rattle into a tipi, saying “gʸägūṇboṇta” (I am going to look for medicine), eating peyote and afterward telling what he had seen; sometimes he made the sound of an eagle, the bird that flies high above the earth and sees afar.

C. W., president of the Kickapoo Native American Church, often has prophetic peyote visions; Kishkaton says they are of “Judgment Day” when the “new world” will come, and makes them a proselytizing argument for peyote. The debt to earlier Kickapoo prophets is obvious. A specific Caddo prophecy among the visions collected would have prevented a serious industrial accident if it had been properly interpreted.

[11] In the Plains the “father peyote” is often carried as a fetish. Kroeber (_Arapaho_, 406) cites a typical case: “The pouches used to contain the peyote plant have room for only one of the disks, which is usually carried more or less as a personal amulet, in addition to being the center of worship during ceremonies. A circular area of bead-work covering the front of the pouch itself, is said to represent the appearance of a peyote-plant while being worshipped. In the center a cross of red beads represents the morning star. Around the edge of this circular bead-work are eight small triangular figures, which denote the vomitings deposited by the ring of worshippers around the inside of the tent in the course of the night. The yellow fringe around the pouch represents the sun’s rays.”

War Eagle, Delaware (Speck, _Delaware Peyote Symbolism_) told of a man gassed in the World War whom peyote cured after his case had been pronounced hopeless. Quanah Parker, the famous Comanche chief, used to carry a peyote on his chest as protection in battle. A Ponca story tells of J. W. and his wife returning home as a cyclone was coming up; when they finally arrived the house was destroyed, but in an undisturbed drawer they found four articles still intact: a “peyote chief,” a bag of peyotes, a Bible, and a peyote drumstick.

[12] Sahagún, _Historia general_, 3:241; _Histoire générale_, 737. Lumholtz (_Unknown Mexico_, 2:354) adds marihuana to the list of plants which protect against witchcraft injury: the doctor comes on a Tuesday, Thursday or Friday, reverses the ill person’s sandals, shirt and drawers, recites the credo backwards to summon the owl, and burns a heap of marihuana and old rags in the house. Many persons also carry marihuana in their girdles as a protection against sorcery. The Cocopa and Yuma uses of an unidentified plant (awimimedje) to offset fatigue and give luck suggests peyote (Gifford, _Cocopa_, 268).

[13] De la Serna, in Safford, _An Aztec Narcotic_, 390; Arlegui in Urbina, _El Peyote y el Ololiuhqui_, 26; Arias, in Urbina, _loc. cit._

[14] See the modern Tepecano votive bowl altar used with peyote or marihuana (Lumholtz, _Unknown Mexico_, 2:124-25).

[15] Lumholtz, _op. cit._, 1:284-85. The Wichita use the “mescal bean” in racing, and the Kiowa as a prophylactic against stepping on menstrual blood. Peyote is associated with racing in Mexico by the Huichol, Tamaulipecans, and Tarahumari (Lumholtz, _Unknown Mexico_, 2:49-50; Prieto, _Historia y Estadistica_, 123-24; Lumholtz, _op. cit._, 1:372; Bennett and Zingg, _Tarahumara_, 136-37, 295, 338).

[16] A Wichita leader envisioned a flag three months before being drafted into the army; the fetish-peyote he carried over-seas miraculously escaped confiscation during an inspection and disinfection of clothing, and because of it he was only slightly wounded in battle. One meeting I attended was in performance of a vow if the Bonus legislation then pending would pass. This same leader prophetically dreamt of how peyote would protect him on a pilgrimage to Mexico and aid him through the customs with a supply of plants, and all happened as predicted.

The Tarahumari dare not touch the dekúba (datura) plant lest they go crazy or die; this presents a problem since the plants are common in their winter caves. The peyote shaman, however, armed with the more powerful plant uproots the datura with impunity. Peyote is the only cure for the otherwise fatal disease which comes from touching dekúba (Bennett and Zingg, _op. cit._, 138, 294).

[17] Hoebel, _Comanche Field Notes_; Voegelin, _Shawnee Field Notes_. The Iowa Red Bean medicine bundle was used for war, horse stealing, hunting and horse racing (Skinner, _Ethnology of the Ioway Indians_, 245-47, _Societies of the Iowa_, 718-19). A similar mescal war bundle and cult was present among the neighboring and related Oto. The Red Medicine bundles of the Pawnee contained mescal beans likewise; indeed the Pawnee are thought to be the origin of the Iowa bundle and associated war-dance. The Pawnee “kill” the beans by breaking and stirring them in a large kettle, drinking the concoction toward morning until they vomit, to “clean out” the body. There is an unmistakable similarity to the “black drink” ritual vomiting here (see Appendix 4).

[18] Mulato, sunami, and rosapara cacti, however, protect against Apache machinations; Mooney (_Tarumari-Guayachic_) cites a Chalája arroyo near Conaguchi (from chärä or chälä, “squirrel,” the epithet of witches) where witches were formerly burned; cf. the use of the squirrel-fetish in the Tarahumari peyote ritual. In Tamaulipas intertribal peace was so precarious that peyote mitotes were commonly held in remote and inaccessible intermediate mountain regions; the recital of war deeds was sometimes part of the rite (Prieto, in Mooney, _Tarumari-Guayachic_). De la Serna (in Safford, _An Aztec Narcotic_, 310) describes the use of teo-nanacatl in witching. For Tarahumari witching with hikuli see Lumholtz, _Unknown Mexico_, 1:314, 323-24, 371-72.

[19] A favorite diversion of witches to weaken the leader was to make his assistants vomit (Opler, _The Influence of Aboriginal Pattern_). My Kiowa companion vomited in a Ponca meeting, the first he had ever attended in that tribe. He attributed it to their unfriendly feeling and felt considerably relieved when we visited next morning a meeting held by old friends among the Oto; but he himself had once witched a Comanche in a meeting (_Autobiography of a Kiowa Indian_). Tonkawa data is from Opler, _Autobiography of a Chiricahua Apache_. The exploits of the Kiowa witch Tonakat have already been mentioned. The Comanche “used it in the old times, but not rightly; the medicine men used it for sorcery, so people got scared and stopped using it” (Hoebel, _Comanche Field Notes_). Among the Cheyenne, Flacco and Cloud Chief strongly opposed the introduction of peyote; the former said “it was used to witch people and make them crazy.” The Northern Cheyenne (Hoebel, _Field Notes_) and Lipan (Opler, _The Use of Peyote_) and Winnebago “fear states” may have a physiological basis.

Mrs. Voegelin (_Shawnee Field Notes_) quotes an informant: “Wilson showed them how to swallow mescal beads.... N. S. didn’t go; she was afraid of them. The Delaware had it too; she never wanted to go look. John Wilson also taught them how to shoot a person with red beads two inches long; the person would fall down, hard; then John Wilson doctored on them with medicine. [Several Shawnee] crept up in the grass when the Quapaws were holding a Ghost Dance once, at night. S’s wife got shot.... Finally some one spoke to John Wilson, ‘You men, you abuse the women.’ An old Peoria woman who went all the time, and swallowed those red beads—she was kind of crazy—told Wilson that. The agent finally stopped it.... When they were shot, John Wilson used peyote to bring them back.”

[20] Alegre, _Historia de la Compañía_, 2:219-20; Prieto, _Historia y Estadistica_, 131. It is not proven that peyote applied externally has an anaesthetic or anodyne action (the Zacatecan use in the childbirth ceremony is internal); but natives recognize the ability of peyote to induce a stuporous state. The Aztec (Gerste, _Notes sur le médicine_, 51) used peyote to stupify sacrificial victims. But peyote does not cause sleepiness, and the following Maratine Indian battle song (in Prieto, _op. cit._, 119-20; Mooney, _Peyote Notebook_) should perhaps be translated “become stuporous:” “The women and ourselves shouting with pleasure, Shall drink peyote and shall fall asleep.” For Opata data see Ensayo, in Mooney, _Tarumari-Guayachic_; for Lipan see Opler, _The Use of Peyote_.

[21] Parsons, _Taos Pueblo_, 59; Flores, in Urbina, _El Peyote y el Ololiuhqui_, 26; Rouhier (_Monographie_, 96) adds the Caxcane use “for swellings and spasms”; Hernandez, _De Historia Plantarum_, 3:70; Safford, _An Aztec Narcotic_, 295; Bennett and Zingg, _The Tarahumara_, 294; Hrdlička, _Physiological and Medical Observations_, 173, 242, 244, 250, 251; Lumholtz, _The Huichol_, 9; _Unknown Mexico_, 2:241-42.

[22] Would pupil-dilation from peyote cause temporary “cures” satisfying the uncritical?

[23] Radin, _Crashing Thunder_, 183, 196; Mooney, _The Mescal Plant_, 9. Lumholtz (_Unknown Mexico_, 2:157) himself confidently prescribed peyote for a scorpion-sting.

[24] Beals, _Comparative Ethnology_, 131 (Acaxee); Rouhier, _Monographie_, 12, fn. 3 (Tlaxcala). The Kiowa witch Tonakat fixed a fireplace in the form of a turtle, the source of his power, and used a meeting once for shamanistic display, being shot with a cartridge and remaining unharmed, etc. A Caddo-Delaware tells of a famous Kiowa doctor who used similar tricks in doctoring a woman. He held a black handkerchief over her to see the location of the disease, dipped a feather in water, cut the skin and removed two 1½″ bugs, the wound healing immediately. Both popped when thrown into the fire, thus prognosticating her recovery from a twenty years’ illness. Wild Horse (Caddo-Delaware) said doctors did “wizard sleight-of-hand tricks” in meetings; “some Indians can make you believe you see things.” Some Tonkawa who visited the Kiowa about 1890 performed tricks in meeting like eating fire (Mooney, _Peyote Notebook_).

[25] Lumholtz, _Unknown Mexico_, 2:241-42.

[26] The suppression of peyote was sought under an act of Jan. 30, 1897 (29 Stat. 506), Sect. 6 of the Food and Drugs Act of June 30, 1906 (34 Stat. 768-72), Sect. 11 of the same act, and Service and Regulatory Announcement No. 13, Dept. of Agriculture, Bureau of Chemistry (issued May 3, 1915)—all without success. Specific Federal anti-peyote bills were next attempted: Senate 1862 (65th Congress 1st Sess. Apr. 17, 1917), House of Representatives 10669 (64th Congress 1st Sess.), House of Representatives 4999 (65th Congress 1st Sess. June 12, 1917), House of Representatives 2614 (65th Congress 2nd Sess. May 13, 1918-Oct. 7, 1918). These all failed of passing. An anti-peyote proviso attached as a rider to Appropriations bill House of Representatives 8696 of March 28, 1918 was deleted before passage, under pressure from a powerful and alert Indian lobby. Later bills were House of Representatives 398 (66th Congress 1st Sess.), House of Representatives 2071 (about March 29, 1924), House of Representatives 5057 (not passed by Senate, but amended as:) House of Representatives 5078 (about Jan. 24, 1924, 68th Congress 1st Sess.)—all defeated. The Senate bill 1399 of Feb. 8, 1937 is pending at the present writing.

State laws against peyote have been more successful. The Oklahoma law of March 11, 1899 was automatically repealed by omission in the codification of the state laws; the Darnell bill of 1927 was defeated April 13, 1927. The following states have anti-peyote laws: Colorado (before 1923), Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Montana (by 1925), Nebraska, Nevada (by 1918), New Mexico, North Dakota (before 1923), South Dakota, Utah (before 1918), and Wyoming (1929). The Native American Church is incorporated in Oklahoma and Montana, however, under state charters.

[27] The trip is made after the rainy season and the corn harvest (Lumholtz, _Unknown Mexico_, 2:127); the roasting of corn is of equal ritual importance with the hikuli-harvest and the deer-hunt: the three, indeed, deer, corn and peyote are symbolically the same (Lumholtz _op. cit._, 2:156, 279).

[28] Lumholtz, _Unknown Mexico_, 2:82, 126-27, 141, 157, 271, 272; _Handbook of the American Indians_, 1:576-77; Klineberg, _Notes on the Huichol_, 449. For the gourd-symbolism see also Lumholtz, _op. cit_., 2:57-58, 129, 220; for the arrows, _Handbook of the American Indians_, 2:663.

[29] Cf. the universal corn shuck cigarette of Plains peyotism (a region of deep-rooted pipe ceremonialism), a remarkable case of culture-continuity.

[30] Lumholtz, _Unknown Mexico_, 2:129-35.

[31] Lumholtz, _The Huichol_, 8; _Unknown Mexico_, 2:129-32, 141, 277-78; for the use of the water see 2:57-58, 220.

[32] Cf. the Plains mode of preparing the meat, though the memory of the meaning of this feature (like the corn shuck cigarette and ritual parched corn) is long since gone.

[33] Lumholtz, _Unknown Mexico_, 2:132-35, 153, 156, 189, 271. The triple corn-deer-peyote symbolism is completed when the women grind peyote on a metate.

[34] Lumholtz, _Unknown Mexico_, 2:54, 272, 273-74. Cf. the Plains “fire-stick” and fire-arrangement.

[35] Lumholtz, _Unknown Mexico_, 2:29-31, 142-44, 149-50.

[36] Spanish friars came in after 1722, but Huichol peyotism is almost wholly free of Christian beliefs (_Handbook of the American Indians_, 1:576-77). Even the “baptism” rite is probably native.

[37] Klineberg (_Notes on the Huichol_, 449) mentions special dances led by “angels” the next day—a boy and a girl dressed in their finest. It is not clear if this refers to the dance leaders or to the ceremonial “race for life” with the eating of cake-animals and spraying of the runners by the elders. But elsewhere Lumholtz describes a dance with carved bamboo serpent-sticks, deer-tails on short sticks, and whiskbroom “combs” (_Unknown Mexico_ 2:49-50).

[38] Lumholtz, _Unknown Mexico_, 2:272, 274-75.

[39] But the whole peyote ritual might be divided into (1) the trip for hikuli, (2) the deer hunt, and (3) the roasting of corn, though peyote-deer-corn are symbolically identical.

[40] Lumholtz, _Unknown Mexico_, 2:279. Tamaulipecan peyotism is similarly a hunting and first-fruits ceremony.

[41] “The idea of the antlers being arrows readily occurred to the Huichol, since they are the animal’s weapon of attack and defence” (Lumholtz, _Symbolism of the Huichol_, 69).

[42] Lumholtz, _Unknown Mexico_, 2:7-8, 56, 172-73, 201-203; _Handbook of the American Indians_, 1:663b; _Symbolism of the Huichol_, 42, 66, 71, 174; _The Huichol_, 10.

[43] Bits of deer meat, corn-tamales and strung peyote-plants are treated with exactly equivalent ritual. In the peyote dance serpent-sticks are thrust into the air (like prayer sticks, praying for rain?), and small whisks made of materials brought from the hikuli-country represent deer-tails. In the origin legend, peyote first arose in the tracks of a gigantic deer; indeed, when the gods first used peyote they ground deer-antlers on a metate with water to make an intoxicant, just as peyote is ground to make “tea” and corn to make tesvino. The fire is built in a special way suggesting deer-antlers or the god-chairs. Arrows as definitely symbolize prayer as the prayer sticks of the Southwest. The poker or fire-arrow of Grandfather Fire is smeared with blood and decorated with plumes; it is his “pillow” and the rest of the sticks are his “chair.” (One “appearance” of the god is a heart, modelled of the paste of the sacred wáve seed toasted and ground like corn, and renewed in the god-house every five years.) Facial paintings of the Huichol are called úra, “spark,” being made of a yellow root dug in the peyote country when the hikuli is gathered; yellow particularly symbolizes the fire gods, of whom there are two. Tatévali, “Grandfather Fire,” is the god of prophesying and curing shamans whose birds are the macao, royal eagle, cardinal bird, etc. The other, Tatótsi Mára Kwári, “Greatgrandfather Deer-tail,” is the god of singing-shamans, whose bird is the white-tailed hawk. Their relationship is peculiar: Greatgrandfather Deer-tail, the symbol of fertility, is the son of Grandfather Fire, from whose plumes he sprang. Lumholtz (_Symbolism of the Huichol_, 10-11) explains the difficulty by indicating that the former represents a spark, the latter a fire fed by wood.

[44] Bennett and Zingg, _The Tarahumara_, ix, 136, 291-92; Mooney, _Tarumari-Guayachic_; Lumholtz, _Tarahumari Dances_, 453; _Unknown Mexico_, 1:362.

[45] Bennett and Zingg, _op. cit._, 292; Lumholtz, _Unknown Mexico_, 1:363. The rasp is not used in the fiesta on returning from the trip, but in later ones.

[46] Lumholtz, _Unknown Mexico_, 1:171-72, 343-44, 363-64. The shaman’s women assistants are called rokoro, “stamens”; he is the pistil—a botanically erroneous symbolism, however.

[47] The Tarahumari rasp is definitely associated with peyotism, indicating (Bennett and Zingg, _The Tarahumara_, 71) a Huichol provenience; but they list rasps for the Cora, Mayo, Pima (“rain sticks”), Hopi (in the kachina dance) and N. Paiute (to charm antelope into a corral). The rasp is not exclusively Uto-Aztecan however; it occurs for the Wichita, Hidatsa, Salinan, and archaeologically in Illinois. Tarahumari Brazil-wood rasps are brought from the hikuli-country.

[48] Lumholtz, _Unknown Mexico_, 1:313, 363-66; Bennett and Zingg, _op. cit._, 293; Mooney, _Tarumari-Guayachic_.

[49] Lumholtz, _Unknown Mexico_, 1:367-69, 371; Bennett and Zingg, _The Tarahumara_, 293. Near Eagle Pass a folk-Catholic saint is El Santo Niño de Jesús Peyotes, whose attributes are a staff, gourd, feathered hat and basket similar to but distinct from El Santo Niño de Atoche. In Mexican legend he is a little boy; his statue is in the cathedral or cathedral square at Rosales, Mexico. Another attribute is said to be the crescent moon.

[50] Lumholtz, _Unknown Mexico_, 1:292-93, 314, 344, 347-48, 371-72, 384; Bennett and Zingg, _The Tarahumara_, 294. The ceremony is called napítshi nawlíruga, “moving (dancing) around the fire” (Lumholtz, _Unknown Mexico_, 1:364). In the dry season the Tarahumari dance the yumari almost nightly to the Morning Star, and sacrifice tesvino to the sun; a man is often deputed to do the dance alone while the others work in the fields, to bring rain (Lumholtz, _op. cit._, 1:352). The Morning Star is important in the Cora rite too (Lumholtz, _op. cit._, 1:344; Preuss, _Nayarit-Expedition_, _passim_) as well as figuring in Plains peyotism, though somewhat vaguely.

[51] Lumholtz, _Unknown Mexico_, 1:357-58, 444; Bennett and Zingg, _The Tarahumara_, 360, 366-67, 379, 383.

[52] Beals, _Comparative Ethnology_, 131. He adds, though, that “This [use] may also be aboriginal, and very probably dates back to the separation of the Huichol from their peyote-using relatives, the Guachachiles.” He cites Thomas and Swanton (_Indian Languages_, 22) but evidence is meagre. For the Cora we have Ortega (in Safford, _An Aztec Narcotic_, 295, and _Narcotic Plants_, 402): “Close to the musician was seated the leader of the singing whose business it was to mark the time. Each of these had his assistants to take his place when he should become fatigued.... They began forming as large a circle as could occupy the space of ground that had been swept off for this purpose. One after the other went dancing in a ring or marking time with their feet, keeping in the middle the musician and the choirmaster whom they invited, and singing in the same unmusical tone that he set them. They would dance all night from five o’clock in the evening to seven o’clock in the morning, without stopping or leaving the circle. When the dance was ended all stood who could hold themselves on their feet; for the majority from the peyote and the wine which they drank were unable to utilize their legs or hold themselves upright.”

[53] Prieto, _Historia y Estadistica_, 123-24.

[54] Beals, _Comparative Ethnology_, 131.

[55] Sahagún, _Historia general_, 3:241 (Chichimeca); Prieto, _Historia y Estadistica_, 119-20, cites a Maratine Indian (Tamaulipecan) peyote song referring to war. Arlegui, in Urbina, _El Peyote y el Ololiuhqui_, 26; see also Rouhier, _op. cit._, 12, note 3, 96, 331, note 3; Alegre, in Urbina, _op. cit._, 26; Preuss, _Die Nayarit-Expedition_, 39. The Morning Star is the principal Cora god (Lumholtz, _Unknown Mexico_, 1:511, see also _Handbook of the American Indians_, 1:348a). Elder Brother among the Huichol is the god of wind and hikuli (Lumholtz, _Symbolism of the Huichol_, 42). The Tarahumari dance yumari for the Morning Star (Lumholtz, _Unknown Mexico_, 1:344). In the Plains the drum-lacing signifies the Morning Star. Spier (_Yuman Tribes_, 165) writes: “[The battle leader’s] song first described the morning star, ‘big star,’ which in some unidentified way is connected with war. Just what was his function in battle was not ascertained.” He also dreamed he saw cacti fighting like men.

[56] Mooney, _Tarumari-Guayachic_; Sahagún, _Historia general_, 3:118; Ortega, _Historia del Nayarit_, 22-23; Lumholtz, _Unknown Mexico_, 1:367-68, 2:274-75; Prieto, _Historia y Estadistica_, 123-24.

[57] Racing (Tarahumari, Huichol, Tamaulipas, Acaxee): Lumholtz, _Unknown Mexico_, 1:284-85, 2:49-50; Prieto, _Historia y Estadistica_, 123-24; Beals, _The Acaxee_, 8.

[58] Beals (_Comparative Ethnology_, 127, 141, 211-12) lists it for Southern Mexico, Jalisco-Tepic, Southwest.

[59] Lumholtz, _Unknown Mexico_, 1:362, 2:54; Bennett and Zingg, _The Tarahumara_, 295. See also Wissler, _The American Indian_, 213; _Handbook of the American Indians_, 1:604b. In the Plains some tribes differentiated twigs and leaves as male and female.

[60] The Tarahumari feast for the moon involves smoking to make clouds (Lumholtz, _Unknown Mexico_, 2:130; _Tarahumari Dances_, 441). The Huichol carry “tamale” cigarettes in their gourds and offer them to Grandfather Fire.

[61] Bennett and Zingg, _The Tarahumara_, 67; Beals, _Aboriginal Survivals_, 32; Russell, _The Pima_, 168; Spier, _Havasupai Ethnography_, 272; Lumholtz, _Unknown Mexico_, 1:313; Opler, _The Influence of Aboriginal Pattern_, _The Use of Peyote_; Sayles, _An Archaeological Survey_, Table 2; Oliver, in Gatschet, _The Karankawa Indians_, 18; Gatschet, in Swadesh, _Chitamacha Texts_; Kroeber, _The Seri_, 14, 42; Roberts, _Musical Areas_, 21; Paz, _Koasati Field Notes_; Bartram, _Travels_, 502; Speck, _Yuchi_, 61.

[62] Tarahumari officials are called igúsuame, “stick-bearers” (Bennett and Zingg, _op. cit._, 375-76) but this may be an Hispanicism. However, Aztec merchants (Sahagún) carried staffs. But so far as the peyote ritual is concerned, the staff is not mentioned for the Cora-Huichol or Tarahumari; and the various names for the peyote staff in the Plains suggests either an indigenous or a Southwestern, not a Mexican, origin.

[63] Bennett and Zingg, _The Tarahumari_, 71, 293-94; Lumholtz, _Unknown Mexico_, 1:366-67. The Tarahumari hunter used a notched deer-bone rasp. The Cora, Mayo, and Pima, Hopi and Northern Paiute suggest a general Uto-Aztecan occurrence of the trait, but the rasp, is also Wichita, Hidatsa.

[64] Prieto, _Historia y Estadistica_, 123-24. See the Plains section for discussion of drums.

[65] A little white flower, tōtó, of the wet corn-producing season symbolizes corn for the Huichol and is a prayer for it, being plastered on women’s cheeks, woven in girdles, etc. (Lumholtz, _Unknown Mexico_, 229-30). The Tamaulipecan rite celebrates the harvest and deer-hunting as well as war; the Tepehuane all-night rite with a mimicry of deer-hunting ends with a feast on the first “toasted corn” of the season (Lumholtz, 1:479). Acaxee corn toasted on the ear was the usual food on war-parties (Beals, 10). Concerning the standardized parched-corn in sugar-water of the Plains, note that the Aztec made offerings of toasted corn (sometimes with honey), and to the culture-hero Opuchtli offered mumuchtli “a sort of corn which when toasted opens up and shows the white marrow [popcorn] forming a very white flower. They said this represented hail, which is attributed to the water gods.” (Sahagún, _A History of Ancient Mexico_, 1:36, 40, 87.)

[66] Bennett and Zingg, _The Tarahumara_, 138, 295; Lumholtz, _Unknown Mexico_, 1:357-58 (wherein all but the last named are cacti), 2:124-25 (Tepecano). The accepted etymology of teo-nanacatl, “divine mushroom,” suggests the same attitude; in the Antilles “among the most prominent of the plants worshipped ... [are] mushrooms, pines, opuntias, zapos, and zeybas.” (Rafinesque, cited in Bourke, _Scatological Rites_, 91; but Rafinesque is an undependable authority). The Cherokee called casine yapon (the “black drink”) “the beloved tree” (Bartram, _Travels_, 357). It is also said that in Virginia toadstools were an object of worship because of their mysterious growth (Bourke, _ibid._). In Peru coca was looked on with veneration and suppliants must approach priests only with some in their mouths. Compare the use and attitudes toward tobacco, mescal beans, datura, guarana paste, cohoba, chocolate (_Theobroma cacao_), aya-huasca, yahé, etc.

[67] Lumholtz, _Unknown Mexico_, 2:172-73, 207, 263 ff. The Huichol had hikuli-shields; curiously, Crow-Neck (Kiowa) about 1860 made a peyote shield according to a vision he had at Mescalero, but he threw it away when he was captured on his first fight in Mexico. The Kiowa, however, had heraldic shield-societies before peyote, of which this is probably an aberrant example. (For the bird and arrow equation see Spier, _Yuman Tribes_, 331, Lumholtz, _op. cit._, 2:201-202.) See also Lumholtz, _op. cit._, 1:313, 323-24, 371-72; _Tarahumari Dances_, 452.

[68] Bennett and Zingg, _The Tarahumari_, 294.

[69] Lumholtz, _Unknown Mexico_, 1:311, writes: “Without his shaman the Tarahumare would feel lost, both in this life and after death. The shaman is his priest and physician. He performs all the ceremonies and conducts all the dances and feasts by which the gods are propitiated and evil is averted, doing all the singing, praying, and sacrificing. By this means, and by instructing the people what to do to make it rain, and secure other benefits, he maintains good terms for them with their deities, who are jealous of man and bear him ill-will. He is also on the alert to keep those under his care from sorcery, illness, and other evil that may befall them ... the Tarahumare ... keeps his doctor busy curing him, not only to make his body strong to resist illness, but chiefly to ward off sorcery, the main source of trouble in the Indian’s life.”

[70] Beals, _Comparative Ethnology_, 128.

[71] This entire section is summarized from data collected by M. E. Opler. I gratefully acknowledge the courtesy and generosity of his lending me the article _The Influence of Aboriginal Pattern_ before publication, as well as _The Autobiography of a Chiricahua Apache_, and unpublished notes on Lipan, Tonkawa and Carrizo peyotism; it would be difficult to establish Mexican-Plains continuities without these invaluable data and the warm coöperation of Dr. Opler.

[72] The Mescalero are listed neither in Shonle (_Peyote: The Giver of Visions_, 53-75) nor in Newberne and Burke, _Peyote_. Mescalero peyotism, like Tarahumari, is on the decline.

[73] The Lipan make a smoke and pray when the first plant is found; they are hard to find unless one eats one, then “a noise like the wind” comes, and one by one the plants appear “just like stars.” Only the tops are cut off.

[74] Though this was general in Mescalero ceremonialism, they also controlled the weather thus, found lost objects, located the enemy, etc.; a Chiricahua prayed for health, in the name of Yuan and Child of the Water. The Lipan formerly did not use it for doctoring apparently. The Tonkawa, according to Mooney, performed shamanistic tricks in peyote meetings; and a Carrizo chief, for example, filled the tipi once with down-feathers blown from his mouth, then sucked them all in save one which he gave to a Lipan visitor. Others made a bear, turtle, and buffalo, etc., appear.

[75] The Lipan wash themselves with yucca or soapweed and perfume themselves with mint, and use the same kind of sage in meetings as they wear in their hats against lightning. The Tonkawa wore G-string, leggings and blanket, and preferably long hair and face paint; native perfumes were proper but white men’s were forbidden. The Carrizo entered barefoot, wearing only a G-string. Some Lipan fasted the day before.

[76] The Lipan leader “is supposed to stop all arguments in there; he has to watch all the men.” Unlike the Mescalero, the Lipan staff and gourd were passed around clockwise (both preceding the drum); the retention of these by the leader is probably an aspect of his special authority among the Mescalero, since the Lipan lacked the rasp, retained by the leader, which might have been transmitted from Mexico. The Tonkawa sometimes used a lard-can drum covered with buckskin, and passed the rattle (aberrantly) after it; the leader never drummed.

[77] Some shamans trace a cross of pollen on the chief peyote. The Tonkawa use the largest one they can find, put some red paint on the top, and surround it with smaller buttons on a fine buckskin; they claimed to be able to see far off with the aid of peyote and to detect witchcraft. Some Lipan like the Mescalero put peyote buttons in a circle around the fire pit and the chief peyote (cf. the Comanche placing of them in a sage horseshoe west of the altar).

[78] The Lipan fire-tender, like the Carrizo and some Mexican groups, made simply a fire-pit, with no crescent altar; this form originated with the Mescalero or in northwestern Mexico, not around the lower Rio Grande. The Carrizo, like the Tamaulipecan, held the ceremony in the open.

[79] The Lipan used peyote green or dry or pounded up in a wooden bowl, which was passed like the drum from the southeast. The Carrizo made a peyote “tea” (compare the neighboring Karankawa “black drink”). The Tonkawa used a flat basket. Among the Mescalero (also Lipan and Kiowa), “Care was taken to keep the ‘fuzz’ from the top of the peyote button from coming in contact with the eye, for it was thought to cause blindness.”

[80] Not all Mescalero leaders do this; oak-leaf cigarettes are usually used but one leader has a red stone Sioux pipe, which is passed clockwise. The Lipan smoke oak-leaf or corn husk cigarettes at the beginning and at the end. Their eagle wing-bone whistle in peyote is recent, and not all Mescalero leaders use it.

[81] The Carrizo on each side of the door had a woman wearing a red blanket; the one at the south had hers fastened with a red flicker feather, the other with a woodpecker. This non-exclusion of women is Mexican. But the Lipan allow no women around; they may not even erect the peyote-tipi. The Tonkawa originally allowed no women in peyote meetings; but doctoring gradually broke down this restriction.

[82] “The virulence of these rivalries and attempts to harm others at peyote meetings led to the development of a number of protective measures and safeguards.” For these see Opler, _The Influence of Aboriginal Pattern_.

[83] In the old shamanistic curing, the shaman was the performer and the others merely onlookers, but in peyotism the inevitable physiological effects of the drug made all present potential receivers of power, and shamanistic display and rivalry was correspondingly increased. This had not wholly disappeared even in early Plains peyote-using groups: the Tonkawa, Lipan, and Kiowa had shamanistic displays of power in peyote meetings, and we have recorded considerable witchcraft anxiety in early Kiowa, Comanche, Caddo, and Tonkawa meetings.

[84] The reasons for this are several: a nomadic people presents few opportunities for the establishing of missions; the Apache were one of the American Indian groups last subjugated; they are notoriously suspicious and unfriendly toward innovation, and recognized the alien origin even of peyotism; and further, the rite they received from Mexico had few or no Christian elements in it. It might be suggested that the “baptism” ceremonies in the morning or the ritual breakfast are Christian in origin; but this is thoroughly doubtful, since it occurs in pre-White peyotism (e.g., Lipan).

[85] In the Plains, peyotism largely followed the Ghost Dance frustration of anti-White sentiment and preached conciliation instead; such Christian elements as were added had a largely propagandist function in this direction.

[86] Wagner, _Entwicklung und Verbreitung_, 74; Shonle, _Peyote: Giver of Visions_, 55.

[87] As told, this seemed to have reference to the miraculous proliferation of the Biblical loaves and fishes, but it is sufficiently similar to aboriginal hunting beliefs.

[88] The Comanche and others usually had a meeting on the spot, eating green peyote.

[89] The Kiowa now have five Easter meetings, six on New Year’s Day, four to six on Thanksgiving, and two or three on Armistice Day (by World War soldiers and sailors). Bert Crow-lance vowed to eat a hundred if all the Kiowa boys returned safely from the War (but this is an enormous quantity actually to have eaten). The Kiowa differ from other groups in having no funeral meetings; mourners commonly abstain for several months from meetings. Meetings have been held for heyoka-like display. The Comanche formerly held meetings before a war journey to invoke peyote’s protection from the enemy, and to prophesy the outcome of the battle.