In September 1968 a man was charged in Min) with 
arson. He had burnt down two houses and was con- 
victed. His defense was that he was under the influence 
of mushrooms and therefore not responsible for his be- 
havior. [t seemed likely that that was an excuse. In any 
case the white man’s courts do not exonerate a man for 
offences committed while under the mushroom influence. 
In fact, ‘arson’ seems an excessive charge when speak- 
ing of the natives: a native dwelling can be built in two 
days. 
We visited Father William A. Ross, S.V.D., of the 
Catholic Mission of the Holy Trinity at Mount Hagen. 
He was the first missionary to enter the area, having 
come in 1984, the year after the initial penetration. (We 
have already quoted from his report, written at that 
time.) After our visit he sent us a letter in which he 
gave his considered opinion that imagination plays a large 
part in bringing on the effects of the mushrooms, and 
that large quantities of the mushrooms must in any case 
be eaten, mixed with other foods. He said that ‘mush- 
room madness’ had virtually died out in the Mount 
Hagen area, though large quantities of the same mush- 
rooms continue to be consumed by the natives. Father 
John Sheerin, S.V.D., of the Mingende Mission that 
lies beyond the other end of the valley, when we ques- 
tioned him, did not know of the mushroom madness, 
but on inquiring of the natives attached to his mission, 
discovered that they knew all about it. Whether the 
Wahgi Valley natives have influenced this area, or 
whether the phenomenon is indigenous in the Chimbu 
we do not know. The area of diffusion of ‘mushroom 
madness’ has never been defined. It is certain that the 
madness is known among the Sina-Sina people, ten miles 
east of Kundiawa on the road to Goroka, where a mush- 
room causing the outburst is called Awzrin. Our informant 
[13 ] 
