Lf you are wise, you will talk about something, anything, 
else. Then, when evening and darkness come and you 
are alone with a wise old man or woman whose confidence 
you have won, by the light of a candle held in the hand 
and talking in a whisper, you may bring up the subject. 
Now you will learn how the mushrooms are gathered, 
perhaps before sunrise, when the mountain side is caressed 
by the pre-dawn breeze, at the time of the New Moon, 
in certain regions only by a virgin. ‘The mushrooms are 
wrapped in a leaf, perhaps a banana leaf, sheltered thus 
from irreverent eyes, and in some villages they are taken 
first to the church, where they remain for some time on 
the altar, in a,écara or gourd bowl. They are never ex- 
posed in the market-place but pass from hand to hand 
by prearrangement. I could talk to you a long time 
about the words used to designate these sacred mush- 
rooms in the languages of the various peoples that know 
them. The Aztecs before the Spaniards arrived called 
them teo-nandcatl, God’s flesh. I need hardly remind 
you of a disquieting parallel, the designation of the 
Elements in our Eucharist: ‘Take, eat, this is my 
Body... .’; and again, ‘Grant us therefore, gracious 
Lord, so to eat the flesh of thy dear son... .” But there 
is one difference. The orthodox Christian must accept 
by faith the miracle of the conversion of the bread into 
tod’s flesh: that is what is meant by the Doctrine of 
Transubstantiation. By contrast, the mushroom of the 
Aztecs carries its own conviction; every communicant 
will testify to the miracle that he has experienced. In 
the language of the Mazatecs, the sacred mushrooms are 
called ’nti' si*tho®. The first word, ‘nti’, is a particle ex- 
pressing reverence and endearment. * The second element 
means ‘that which springs forth.” In 1958 our muleteer 
* The superscript digits indicate the pitch of the syllable, ' being 
the highest of four. The initial apostrophe indicates a glottal stop. 
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