and how generally, not only in the Americas but in the Old 
World as well, are birds associated with hallucinogens, but sev- 
eral examples will suffice. 
Amongst the Koryaks of Siberia, the culture hero, Big Raven, 
discovered the hallucinogenic mushroom Amanita muscaria 
from the spittle of the god Vihiyinin (Schultes and Hofmann, 
1980). The mythical Thunder Bird carries the prayers of the 
peyote-eating Indians of the United States to heaven (LaBarre, 
1938), and levitation is important in the Huichol peyote ritual in 
Mexico (Furst and Anguiano, 1977). In eastern Brazil, the Indi- 
ans who drank vinho de jurema (Mimosa hostilis) flew all night 
carried on the back of a huge bird that skirted thundering rapids 
and showed its passengers the abodes of the dead (Goncalves de 
Lima, 1946). 
In several “Darien-related pectorals,” the hands hold a bar on 
which are perched four birds. In one of the pectorals, the birds 
are movable. We suggest that, in these examples, too, the avian 
ornamentation indicates association with the flying sensation 
experienced in mushroom intoxication. 
But there is an even more compelling argument for the hallu- 
cinogenic connection of the pectorals: the frog or toad. Almost 
all of the pectorals are ornamented with these amphibian fig- 
ures. In some cases, the figure is realistic; in others, it is flat but 
easily discernible—with eyes, legs and a median dorsal band, 
indicating undoubtedly the coloured band on some of these 
animals. In most, however, it is highly stylized, their eyes and 
legs represented by circles of double spirals, the tail portion 
indicated by a flat triangular projection, and the snout repre- 
sented occasionally by a knob-like protuberance. 
This extraordinarily constant association of the frog or toad 
with the pectorals would seem to have deep significance. No 
other animals represent change and transition more sharply with 
their dramatic metamorphosis and fertility passing from the 
egg to a wholly water-living, gill-breathing creature resembling a 
fish to a terrestrial, four-legged amphibian. Furthermore, cer- 
tain frogs of the Dendrobatidae are frighteningly toxic—one 
species producing the most highly poisonous substance known 
(Daly and Myers, 1967; Daly and Witkop, 1971). For millenia 
and in widely separated parts of the globe, frogs and toads have 
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