religious practices, including the utilization of Trichocereus 

 Pachanoi, undoubtedly were thoroughly transformed. 



Today, in marked contrast to the indigenous Quechua 

 populations of the southern Peruvian Andes, the rural popula- 

 tion of the Huancabamba and surrounding valleys is totally 

 mestizo. No indigenous languages, textiles, forms of social 

 organization or agricultural practices remain. True, remnants of 

 aboriginal religious beliefs and practices have persisted, yet over 

 the centuries they have been so fully influenced by Christianity 

 that, in the syncretic result, it is often difficult to distinguish one 

 tradition from the other (Sharon 1978). In fact, so rich is the 

 overlay of Roman Catholic symbolism on the contemporary 

 cults that early observors concluded that they represented a 

 strictly post-contact, colonial phenomenon. Ethnohistorical 

 evidence, while indicating that without doubt Trichocereus 

 Pachanoi was used in some regions of 17th and 18th century 

 Peru (Oliva 1895, Cobo 1956), is insufficient to allow the initial 

 transformations of the indigenous religions and the subsequent 

 evolution of the contemporary cults to be precisely character- 

 ised. In the absence of complete ethnohistorical data, evidence 

 of the continuity of indigenous beliefs must be sought in a 

 synchronic study of the symbolism of the cult as it exists today. 

 In this regard, it is pertinent to repeat at some length a 

 remarkable folk belief that I encountered near Huancabamba. 



Whilst walking from Huancabamba to Las Huaringas, I 

 noticed a particularly large stand of Trichocereous Pachanoi 

 (voucher, herbarium specimen, Davis 760) growing at the 

 Caseria Laumache, approximately three miles from Huanca- 

 bamba. As I approached the stand, I was astonished to discover 

 that a single clone covered perhaps one quarter of an acre; 

 individual shoots towered to 45 feet, and some fallen sections 

 measured 14!/2 inches in diameter. In order to collect specimens, 

 I borrowed a machete from a nearby campesino who then 

 followed me anxiously towards the San Pedro. As I entered the 

 stand, he most emphatically urged me to hurry; when I 

 attempted to pass him my cut specimens, he eased towards the 

 edge of the stand with the utmost caution. Then, as he gazed 

 over my shoulder, he suddenly yelled and flung himself face first 



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