the fungal world - is inanimate, but with a sini^Jc exception, one 

 species o{ mushroom, the puika. The Santal do not know why 

 the puika is animate, or so they say. The puika is an under- 

 ground fungus that is gathered for eating just as it appears, a 

 snow-white little ball, in m\cology identifed by Heim as a Scle- 

 roderma, well known in Europe. In season it is highl\' prized as 

 food by the Santal, and much sought for by women and 

 children. 



For the last century the Norwegian Lutherans ha\e made a 

 vigorous play to be helpful in India by missionary acti\ity 

 among the Santal. The Rev. P. O. Bodding, a resident of the 

 Santal Parganas from 1890 to 1934, mastered their language and 

 compiled an admirable Santal-Pnglish dictionary' in fi\'e large 

 \oIumes, pointing out among other things the oddit)' o[ puika, 

 which enjoyed in the vegetable kingdom the unique attribute of 

 a soul. He could not explain this anomaly, nor did he venture an 

 etymolog} ^ov puika. But in the preface to his dictionary 

 Bodding observed a noteworthy fact: 



M 



SuiuiyclN LMioLigh. the Sanlals use sonic pure Sanskrit words, 

 vsiiich, so lai as I know, arc not heard in the present da\' Hindi. 



I visited Dumka in the Santal Parganas for the first time in 

 January 1965. Ihe Rev. A.E. Str^nstad, Mr. Bodding's suc- 

 cessor, and Mrs. Strc^nstad put me up and Mrs. Str0nstad gra- 

 ciously served as my interpreter. We asked elderly and knowl- 

 edgeable Santal in Dumka and the surrounding villages why 

 puika was animate. No one could tell us. Our best informant 

 turned out to be Ludgi Marndi, the widow of a native Lutheran 

 pastor. She told us that there was one entheogcnic mushroom.* 

 Was it {he putkd] No, not at all. It was merely ot\ ''mushroom'' 



*"'Fnthc(>^cn" is a word dc\isod h\ sdmc o\ us lor those plant substances that inspired 

 Fiirl\ Man uilh awe and re\erenec lor iheir elTect on him B\ "Farlv Man" uc mean 

 mankind in prehistory or prtitti-liistorv, beliire he eould read and wiile. \\hether long 

 long ago or sinee then or even living ioda\ in remote regions of the earth. "Pntheogen" 

 (or its atlieetive "entheogenie") has the advantage thai it d(K*s not carry the odor ol 

 "hallucinogen," "psschedelic," "drug.** clc. o{ the \t)ulh o'i the I96()\. Sec Journal p/' 

 Psvilu'ili'lii Ihui^s, Vol. II (1-2). Jan-.lune 1979. pp. 145-6. 



228 



