ently used the expression “flesh of the gods.” Bancroft 
(I) , in speaking of the intoxicants of the Nahuatls, wrote: 
“Among the ingredients used to make their drinks more 
intoxicating, the most powerful was the teonanacatl, 
‘flesh of the gods’, a kind of mushroom which excited 
the passions and caused the partaker to see snakes and 
divers other visions.” 
There are numerous less explicit references to the 
use of mushrooms for intoxication in Mexico. These have 
no common names or descriptions which might serve to 
identify the plant, but it is probable that some of the ref¬ 
erences concern the same species of Paneolus which has 
been identified as teonanacatl. One of these references 
(II) relates that visitors who had come to the coronation 
of Montezuma were offered “wild mushrooms” to eat; 
these intoxicated them and made them dance. Duran, 
quoted by Bourke (2) states that after the sacrifice of 
human beings at the coronation of Montezuma II, the 
multitude ate raw mushrooms and that these induced an 
intoxication which was much stronger than alcoholic- 
intoxication ; many committed suicide during the height 
of the intoxication; some received visions and were, in 
this way, permitted to foresee the future. It is probably 
safe to assume that the plants spoken of in these two in¬ 
stances were the teonanacatl, Paneolus campanulatus 
var. sphinctrinus or a related species. The great similarity 
in the intoxication to that which Ford (6) has described 
for Paneolus would seem to suggest that the intoxicant 
was a member of this genus. 
Thompson (27) reports Saville as stating that Tizoc, 
an Aztec ruler who was poisoned after a five year reign* 
may have been killed by the substitution of poisonous 
mushrooms for the intoxicating kind which were normal¬ 
ly eaten at ceremonies. It is probable that, if this were 
the case, the deadly Amanita phalloides (Fr.) Quel, was 
[52] 
