of the soulless class. No one was able to find an example of this 

 inebriating mushroom, but the description (big. growing only in 

 dung mostly of cattle, and white reaching an intense cream color 

 in the umbolate center) tallied with Siropharia cuhcnsis. Neither 

 were there any putka at the time of my visit: they would come 

 after the monsoon broke. Ludgi Marndi and some other infor- 

 mants suggested that the putka was animate because it was 

 found regularly in the sacred grove o{ sarjom trees near every 

 village. (Santali sarjoni = Hindi sal = Shorea rohusta.) But the 

 sacred sarjoni trees were not animate so why should a mush- 

 room growing from their roots be? Furthermore, ihc putka grew 

 also in mycorrhi/al relationship with other species of trees. 

 Ludgi Marndi seemed an especially good informant and just 

 before we were leaving for New Delhi, defeated as we thought. I 

 asked if I might talk with her again. We went over the same 

 ground. Suddenly she leaned forward across the table to Mrs. 

 Str0nstad and in a whisper (as translated to me) said that she 

 would tell her why she thought the putka were animate: "You 

 must eat them within hours of gathering /or t/wv will soon stink 

 like a cadaver.^' She spoke under considerable emotion. We 

 knew not what this meant but at once I jotted down her trans- 

 lated words in my notebook and her remark appeared later, 

 somewhat toned down, in the paper^^ that Heim and 1 published. 

 My 1965 visit was followed by another with Heim in July- 

 August 1967, he flying from Paris to Calcutta and I from New 

 York. We started our quest in the Simlipal Hills and the village 

 of Bisoi in Orissa, where the Santal and their close linguistic 

 kin the Ho intermix, as well as several other peoples. Again we 

 questioned the natives about why the putka were animate. In 

 Nawana in the Simlipal Hills 1 spent the evening with Ganesh 

 Ram Ho, the chief of the village, and he, as Ludgi Marndi had 

 done, voluntered the information that there was an entheogenic 

 mushroom, and his description tallied with Ludgi's; his testi- 

 monv confirmed that it was probably Stropharia cuhcnsis or a 

 close cousin. (That these two excellent informants volunteered 

 to speak of an inebriating mushroom, doubtless Siropharia 

 cuhcnsis. is a lead not to be neglected: it may have played a part 



229 



