48 proceedings: anthropological society 



Mr. Safford said that the practice of magic was widely spread in 

 both North and South America in pre-Columbian times, and in con- 

 nection with it certain plants, principally those having narcotic prop- 

 erties, were used ceremonially, often as incense, or to produce hal- 

 lucinations, to call up the spirits of the dead, and to expel evil spirits 

 from the sick and insane. The priest of the Temple of the Sun at 

 Sagomozo, in the Andes of South America, prophesied and revealed 

 hidden treasures while in a state of frenzy caused by the seeds of a 

 tree datura (Brugmansia sanguined). This recalls similar practices of 

 the priestesses of the oracle at Delphi. Another Peruvian plant with 

 marvelous properties described by early explorers was Erythroxylon 

 Coed, from which the valuable alkaloid cocaine is now obtained. 

 Bags of its leaves accompanied by little gourds containing lime were 

 found by the author in many graves near the Peruvian coast, hanging 

 about the necks of the mummified remains of the dead. On the 

 opposite coast of South America, or rather in Paraguay, grew the highly 

 esteemed Ilex paraguariensis, or yerba mate. Closely allied to it is the 

 Ilex vomitorid of the southeastern United States, from which the In- 

 dians made the famous "black drink," used ceremonially as a magic 

 physic, which purged them from evil and which was used also in initiat- 

 ing their youths into manhood. Professional priests, or necromancers, 

 were encountered by Columbus and his companions on the island of 

 Hispaniola, who induced intoxication and called up their zemi, or gods, 

 by means of a narcotic snuff, called cohoba, inhaled through the nostrils 

 by means of a bifurcated tube. This snuff, hitherto believed to have 

 been tobacco, has been identified recently by the author as the powdered 

 seeds of a Mimosa-like tree, Piptadenia peregrina, still used in a similar 

 way by various South American tribes of Indians, by some of whom an 

 infusion of the seeds is also used to induce intoxication, administered 

 as an enema by means of a pear-shaped syringe of caoutchouc. In 

 Mexico, the early missionaries, who were called upon to stamp out the 

 practice of witchcraft, found that the Aztecs paid divine honors to 

 various plants, especially to huauhtli (a white-seeded Amaranthus); 

 ololiuhqui (a Datura); peyotl (a spineless cactus, Lophophora Wil- 

 liamsii) also called teonanacatl, or "Sacred Mushroom;" and picietl 

 (tobacco). Of huauhtli seeds, ground to a paste with the syrup of 

 maguey, images were made and adored, and afterwards broken into 

 fragments and served as a kind of communion. This seed was pro- 

 duced in such quantities that it was used in paying tribute to Monte- 

 zuma, at the time of the Conquest. The ololiuhqui was regarded as 

 divine, and it was considered a holy task to sweep the ground where 

 it grew. Its spirit, addressed as the Green Woman (Xoxouhqui Cihuatl) , 

 was invoked to expel certain diseases and to overcome weaker and 

 inferior spirits in possession of a sick person. It is interesting to note 

 that the use of the ololiuhqui, or toloatzin, as it was also called (Datura 

 meteloides) , still prevails among the Zuni Indians of New Mexico, the 

 Pai-Utes, and several tribes of southern California in certain religious 

 and ceremonial practices, especially in initiating youths into the status 



