the Salvia have made them conscious of a potential value 
here. Several episodes have recently taken place in the 
vicinity of Huautla in which the owner has enforced his 
right to the plants. 
The Mazatecs who speak Spanish refer to Salvia divino- 
rum as hojas de la Pastora, or hajas de Maria Pastora 
(“‘leaves of the Shepherdess’’ or ‘‘leaves of Mary the 
Shepherdess’’), and this is also the translation of the 
name in Mazatec’*: ska*t Pastora. 
The Mazatec name is curious. In Christian tradition 
the Virgin Mary is not thought of as a shepherdess. Is 
the ‘‘Pastora’’ concept a survival of the pre-Christian 
dueno de los animales, ‘‘the Lord of the animals,’’ that 
figures large in the folk tradition of the Middle Ameri- 
can Indians? A pagan association would thus be sancti- 
fied by the addition of the Virgin’s name. 
Salvia divinorum is, in the minds of the Mazatecs, 
only the most important of several plants, all Labiatae, 
that they regard as members of the same ‘‘family.’’ Salvia 
divinorum is known as la hembra, ‘‘the female.’’ H/ 
macho, or “‘the male,’’ is Coleus pumila, of Kuropean 
origin. Then there is e/ nene, ‘‘the child,’’ and el ahzjado, 
‘“*the godson,’’ which are both forms of Coleus Blumei. 
Some Indians insist that these others are likewise psycho- 
tropic, but we have not tried them; others say these are 
merely medicinal. 
We have found no reference to the use of the leaves 
of Salvia divinorum in the 16th and 17th Century 
writers. We have found only two passages that may re- 
fer to them in modern writers. Dr. Blas Pablo Reko, a 
pioneer in Mexican ethnobotanical field work, discussing 
the hallucinogenic mushrooms, adds (Mitobotdnica zapo- 
* The superscript digit indicates the tone of the syllable, which is 
the lowest of four tones in Mazatec. 
[ 79 | 
