ae 
Following the intense ethnomycological activities of Dr. R. 
Gordon Wasson (Wasson, 1962, 1968, 1972, 1979, 1980), his late 
wife Dr. Valentina P. Wasson (Wasson and Wasson, 1957), and 
the late Professor Roger Heim (Heim, 1967, 1978; Heim and 
Wasson, 1958) unveiling the ancient and the contemporary reli- 
gious use of hallucinogenic mushrooms in southern Mexico, 
Pérez de Barrada wrote: “It would not be strange to reconsider 
with great reserve this casual attribution. It should be noted that 
these semi-spherical buttons are not fixed directly to the head 
but are attached by means of filaments soldered to the back of 
the piece... We know nothing about the ritual use of mush- 
rooms amongst the Indians of Darien at the time of the discov- 
ery nor later, but if we remember, but keep it in mind, since no 
trace was found in the indigenous pharmacopoea of the Catios 
of the Golfo de Uraba, notwithstanding the excellent mono- 
graph by Father Severino Santa Teresa. On the other hand, the 
secrecy with which these Indians guard their knowledge of the 
properties of plants and their shamanistic ceremonies could have 
hidden a possible use of hallucinogenic mushrooms—a use 
which might be very ancient and which possibly existed in dis- 
tinct forms. The bridge between Guatemala and Darien is diffi- 
cult to establish but easy to suspect. Our suggestion that these 
buttons represent mushrooms is accepted by A. Emmerich” 
(Perez, 1954). 
This reference to Emmerich leads us directly to the second 
mention in the literature that these dome-like objects represent 
mushrooms. “It appears likely that the puzzling, hitherto uni- 
dentified hemi-spherical head dress ornaments in fact represent 
a pair of mushrooms, probably of hallucinogenic properties. It is 
significant that such mushroms are to this day traditionally 
counted, ceremonially used and consumed in pairs . . . the mush- 
room head dress ornaments were hammered out separately, 
riveted to short stems and then soldered to the body” (Emme- 
rich, 1965).? 
2In a note, Emmerich states: “I am indebted to Mrs. Mary U. Light for her original 
insight in identifying these ornaments as mushrooms.” 
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