author repeats what Father Ross says almost verbatim, but forgets to 
mention his source. ) 
(b) Vicedom, G.P., and H. Tischner: Die Mbowamb. Die Kultur 
der Hagenberg-Stimme in Ostlichen Zentral-Neuguinea. Private English 
translation by F. E. Rheinstein and E. Klestadt, Vol. 2, 496-7. 
(c) Wasson, V.P., and R.G. Wasson: Mushrooms Russia & History, 
Pantheon Books, N.Y., 1957. (The authors cite Gitlow, not knowing 
that he was quoting Father Ross.) 
Up to now the only serious research into the mushroom madness 
has been that done by an anthropologist : 
(d) Reay, Marie: The Kuma; Freedom and Conformity in the New 
Guinea Highlands, Melbourne University Press, 1959, pp. 188-196. 
(e) Reay, Marie: ‘‘‘Mushroom Madness’’ in the New Guinea 
Highlands’, Oceania, Vol. XXXI, No. 2, Dec. 1960; 137-139. 
In addition, Roger Heim in his Champignons Toxiques et Hallucino- 
genes (Boubée ed., Paris, 1963, pp. 195-201, 289) summarizes our 
knowledge of the mushroom madness up to 1962, and poses the vari- 
ous problems presented by this manifestation. 
Dr. Rolf Singer, on his part, published a note ona Russula that was 
put forward as a cause of the mushroom madness: “A Russula provok- 
ing hysteria in New Guinea’, Mycopath. et Mycol. Applicata, 9 (4) 
pp. 275-278, 1958. But, as a result of our latest observations of ma- 
terial, it seems that the Russula used by the Kuma is very similar to, 
but not identical with, the species sent to Dr. Singer. 
We should add that for years the Australian administrators of the 
Western Highlands have been concerned with the medical and legal 
aspects of ‘mushroom madness’. The relevant correspondence has 
been concentrated largely in the hands of Dr. Dorothy E. Shaw, 
Principal Plant Pathologist, Department of Agriculture, Stock and 
Fisheries, Port Moresby. We are grateful to her and to Mr. Stanley 
Christian, Research Officer of the Malaria Control School, Kundiawa, 
for their cordial collaboration. Dr. Shaw’s activities have so far led 
to the publication of a bibliographical note on p. 12 of the Annotated 
List of References to Plant Pathogens and Miscellaneous Fungi in 
West New Guinea, Research Bulletin No. 1, 1963, Department of 
Agriculture, Stock and Fisheries, of which Dr. Shaw is the author. 
Thanks to him, for the first time the native word nonda 
entered into the consciousness of anthropologists. It is 
used in the Wahgi Valley and apparently around Mount 
Hagen as a general term for all mushrooms. Don Phil- 
lips pointed out to us that ronda” means also ‘he will 
’ Mr. Phillips tell us that the word nonda should be written nonde, 
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