went about the countryside, as far as Mount Hagen, 
gathering testimony as to the mushroom madness. We 
saw no signs of mushroom madness during the period of 
our stay. At the end of our stay and after we left, Marie 
Reay, who had remained in Min}, assembled information 
including native names of vital importance for us. 
The data that we gathered fell into three parts: 
1. The attitude of Europeans toward the mushroom 
madness. 
2. The quite different attitude of the natives. 
3. The species of mushrooms held responsible by 
the natives for the outbursts. 
1. The attitude of the Europeans toward the ‘mushroom 
madness’. 
All the Europeans who have been long in the valley 
know the recurring outbreaks of mushroom madness, and 
in vary ng degrees they are frightened by it. Here for 
example is a vivid account, in full, that Don and Janet 
Phillips sent recently to their friends: 
. We had been aware of these wild men of the Wahgi even be- 
fore we came to settle here, having met up with one of them while 
doing the survey out here. At that time the thought had crossed our 
mind, ‘Was it demon possession or something else?’ But when just 
the other day yells and screams came from higher up the mountain 
and then everybody scattered and hid while a young man holding a 
spear at the ready rushed down the track, these wild men began to 
become part of our lives. About six of these men rushed around on 
that first day striking fear into everybody’s hearts and causing them 
to rush for cover. Some actually chased some of the people, intend- 
ing, so it seemed, to do away with them by the arrows or spears that 
they held. We were standing by a pig feast when the second one 
came. We could hear him coming by his queer shouts and whistling. 
As he came around the corner of the nearby house so everybody fled, 
but we were determined to find out whether he was just playing, or 
was he really serious? So we stood our ground, being ready however 
for anything. Though keeping up his whistling he seemed to notice 
[9 ] 
