and so when she felt an attack approaching, she bathed 
to free herself of the fungal influence.°® 
The mushrooms that are considered the cause of this 
madness grow all year around. Young and old, men and 
women, eat them in all seasons, generally mixed with 
other vegetables. Of the species that may cause the mad- 
ness, there is only one that is eaten raw, nonda tuburam, 
extremely close to T'ubiporus appendiculatus of Kurope. 
(Our informants, unlike Miss Reay’s, were categorical 
that nonda tuburam never caused ‘mushroom madness’. ) 
The madness occurs once or twice a year, without prior 
ritual. "Che mushrooms can be roasted or cooked with 
other vegetables. Different species are often mixed in 
the same receptacle, which may partly explain the dis- 
crepancies in the testimony of the natives as to the spe- 
cies causing the madness. 
Although children eat the mushrooms, they are never 
komugl tat or ndaadl, but from the age of 17 until 70 
certain members of the community are taken by this 
affliction and they are always the same ones, though not 
all those subject to it are homugl tai at the same time. 
Miss Reay observes that in 1954 about 30 persons of the 
Kugika clan were seized by the madness out of 313 that 
made up the community. To these 80 must be added 
another eight who were known to be subject to this mad- 
ness but who on this occasion had escaped its effects. 
According to the natives, it is a question of heredity, 
® Muka, one of our informants, told us he had been subject to re- 
peated crises of madness caused by the mushrooms during his whole 
adult life, until about two years before, when he had rid himself of 
the afHiction by plunging six times running in a pool of cold water. 
We spoke with Muka in the house of the Rev. Rudolf Wenger of the 
Swiss Evangelical Mission. It is not irrelevant to mention that sub- 
sequently Muka was elected Counsellor. His ‘cure’ coincides with 
his entry into the new order of affairs created by the social and politi- 
cal development in this part of New Guinea. 
[17 | 
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