the instrument of death. Since this extremely poisonous 
mushroom could never be overlooked and mistaken for a 
species of Paneolus, it argues that the mushrooms must 
have been utilized dry, in which condition substitution 
would have been less difficult. 
The discovery of the use of Paneolus campanulatus 
var. sphinctrinus as a narcotic among the Mazatecs of 
Oaxaca and its identification as the teonanacatl of ancient 
Mexico greatly enhances our knowledge of the useful 
Basidiomycetes. While the genus Paneolus has been 
known to have poisonous and narcotic properties, its use 
for intoxication has not been reported, so far as I have 
been able to learn, for any primitive peoples outside of 
Mexico. Amanita muscaria (L.) Pers., the fly-agaric, 
has been used somewhat ritually as a narcotic intoxicant 
by the natives of Kamchatka, and this has received rather 
intensive botanical, chemical, medical, and ethnological 
study for many years. Amanita muscaria , like Paneolus 
campanulatus var. sphinctrinus , is widely spread, but its 
use as a definite narcotic is confined to the relatively 
small Kamchatka area of northeastern Siberia, as the 
use of Paneolus campanulatus var. sphinctrinus as a nar¬ 
cotic is apparently known only from Mexico. Dorman 
in Bourke (2) reports that mushrooms were worshipped 
in the Antilles, in Virginia, and in California. Such a prac¬ 
tice might be interpreted as indicating possibly a former 
use of the plant as a narcotic to produce oracular delirium. 
Possibly, however, the reverence accorded to the mush¬ 
rooms is due to other entirely unrelated causes. 
IV. Summary 
1). Paneolus campanulatus L. var. sphinctrinus (Fr.) 
Bresadola is used as a narcotic in daily life and in divin¬ 
ation and witchcraft among the Mazatec Indians of north¬ 
eastern Oaxaca. 
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