is Charles Turner, the local member of the Summer In- 
stitute of Linguistics). This carries the limits well be- 
yond where it has previously been reported and into an 
area of a distinct linguistic family. Many Europeans at 
the upper end of the Wahgi Valley told us that you could 
predict the coming of the madness: it always started, 
they said, at the lower end of the valley, and moved up 
from clan to clan, about two days to the clan. They did 
not know what prompted the start and could not pre- 
dict it. 
We will conclude this section of our report with a 
quotation from a letter received since we left Wahgi 
Valley, written by the Rev. Rudolf Wenger, whom we 
will have occasion to mention again. Written on May 
22, 1964, in French, its tenor supports our skepticism as 
to the active role of mushrooms in the ‘madness’ : 
May I tell you about an instance of the madness? It took place one 
Sunday morning, about 9 o’clock. We had left the church when a 
native, about 50 years old, suddenly appeared armed with lance and 
knife. He stopped on the road at the entrance to our compound. He 
returned to his first position and started to cry in a loud voice: ‘Come 
and tie me up!’ Noticing other people, he ran after them. Finally 
he came back with the two cords in his hands, dropped his arms, and 
called to me in song, begging me to tie him up with those cords. I 
came up to him, brought him to the house, and gave him some ba- 
nanas, which he ate rapidly. I called on Jesus, and about a half hour 
later he had recovered, hearing and talking as he would do naturally. 
I observed that when we had prayed, he collapsed immediately, as 
if be were released or if a power were leaving him. He assured us 
that he had not eaten mushrooms and that the crisis had come over 
him suddenly. 
2. The attidude of the natives to ‘mushroom madness’ . 
Here, as we have already said, Miss Reay is our first 
and foremost source. We are indebted to her not only 
for her publications but also for personal communications 
concerning the Kuma, inhabitants of the Wahgi Valley 
who live to the south of the river, around Kondambi. 
[ 14 ] 
