DATURAS SAFFORD. 551 



closely allied D. discolor, strongly suggests a morning-glory. (See 

 pis. 4 and 5.) Like the Nacazcul {Datura innoxia) above described, 

 it was the source of a medicine reputed to be efficacious in curing the 

 " French sickness " and also for mending broken bones. Padre 

 Sahagan does not confuse it with a convolvulus, nor does he state that 

 the plant has a twining habit. He describes it as follows : 



There is an herb which is called eoatlxoxouhqui [green snake weed]. It 

 produces a seed called oloHuhqui, which is intoxicating and maddening. This is 

 administered in potions in order to harm those who are the objects of hatred. 

 Those who eat it have visions of terrible things. Wizards or persons who wish 

 to injure some one administer it in food or drink. The herb has medicinal 

 properties. As a remedy for gout its seeds are ground up and applied to the 

 part affected. 



Hernandez, who received most of his information from the Indians, 

 although erroneously figuring this plant as an Ipomoea, states that 

 the priests of the Indians when they wished to hold converse with 

 spirits and receive responses from them ate of it in order to throw 

 themselves into a frenzy and to see a thousand phantasms revealed 

 and presented to them, as in the case of Solarium maniacum of Dios- 

 corides, with which this plant might possibly be identified. He adds : 

 " It will not be a great mistake to omit telling where it grows, and it 

 imports little that this herb be here depicted or that it should even 

 become known to Spaniards." 



From the foregoing statement it would appear that Hernandez was 

 intentionally misleading in his account of the Ololiuhqui, and he did 

 not wish its identity to be discovered. An interesting description of 

 the use of Ololiuhqui by the Aztec priests, or paytii, is given by 

 Jacinto de la Serna, whose account, published in Documentos ineditos 

 para la Historia de Espana, volume 104, page 163, follows : 



They have also great superstitions regai-ding a lentil-like seed which they 

 call ololiuhqui, and also another larger drug, a root called peyote, which they 

 venerate as though they were divine. For in drinking these herbs they consult 

 them like oracles regarding whatsoever maladies they may attempt to cure and 

 whatsoever objects they wish to know about, whether lost or stolen, and those 

 things which are beyond human knowledge, such as the origin of infirmities, 

 especially if they are chronic and of long standing and are attributed to witch- 

 craft. In order to dispel doubts regarding this and also for other purposes they 

 have recourse to these herbs through the medium of their impostor medicine 

 men, who, after drinking, reply to all their questions. The person who practices 

 this office is called payni, which signifies the drinker of a purge or sirup. 

 They also pay these persons very well ; and if the medicine man is not very 

 skillful in his office, or if he wishes to excuse himself from the trouble which 

 the drinking of these philters would cause, they advise the sick to drink them 

 or those in quest of lost objects who seek to discover where those things are or 

 in whose possession they may be. 



These seeds, especially the ololiuhqui, they hold in as great reverence as 

 though they were God, burning candles before them and keeping them in small 

 petaquillas, or boxes, expressly made for this purpose ; and they place sacrificial 



