554 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1920. 



Botanist, it is described and figured under the name of the " desert 

 trumpet flower," and the author describes it clustering along the 

 mesa on the morning of a snake dance performed at Walpi, adding 

 its perfume, like incense, to the religious ceremonial of the Hopi 

 Indians. The flowers, like many of the Convolvulaceae, open at 

 a certain hour of the day. They, and also the seed, bear a close 

 resemblance to those of the Old World Datura metel, which was 

 likened by Christoval Acosta to a convolvulus called in Spain 

 "corregiiela mayor," with trumpet-shaped flowers and seeds like 

 lentils. 25 



In gathering the plant for ceremonial or medicinal purposes it is 

 treated with great deference by the Luisefio Indians, who observe 

 preliminary ceremonies, recalling the customs of certain Mexican 

 tribes in gathering the narcotic peyote, and those of European herb 

 gatherers of the Middle Ages in connection with the dreaded man- 

 dragora. Before beginning to dig it up the medicine man addresses 

 the plant somewhat as follows : " I have come to get you, but not 

 without a purpose. You were placed as medicine, and it is for medi- 

 cine that I seek you. Be not humiliated, oh powerful one." 26 



According to Dr. John P. Harrington, of the Bureau of American 

 Ethnology, the uses of this plant in religious ceremonies and in medi- 

 cine were quite distinct in the minds of the Indians. After having 

 partaken of it ceremonially a man not infrequently would remain 

 under its influence for two days, during which he was left to himself. 

 On regaining consciousness he was given warm water to drink and 

 toward nightfall some atole, or gruel. Among the visions experienced 

 by him while under the influence of the narcotic might perhaps be 

 that of some particular animal or plant, which was not infrequently 

 adopted as a supernatural helper or familiar spirit to accompany him 

 through life and render him aid in times of doubt or trouble. For 

 a month after having partaken of the drug it was customary for him 

 not to go to bathe or to eat meat or fat and during this period the 

 society of human beings was avoided and solitude was sought among 

 the hills. The winter season was chosen for the administration of the 

 drug; it was supposed to be injurious if taken in warm weather; even 

 in April the time for drinking it had passed. 



INITIATORY CEREMONIAL OF THE LUISENO INDIANS. 



The use of Datura meteloides among the Indians of southern Cali- 

 fornia recalls the huskanawing ritual of the Virginia Indians 

 described below. The following account is based upon a description 

 of the ceremony, given by Lucario Cuevish to Miss Constance God- 



25 Christoval Acosta, Tractado de las drogas y medicinas de las Indian Orientales, pp. 

 86, 87, 1587. 



26 For similar apologetic preliminaries, practiced by the Indians of Mexico in cutting 

 down trees and gathering narcotic and medicinal plants, see Safford, W. E., "An Aztec 

 Narcotic (Lophophora WiUiamsii) ," Journ. of Heredity, vol. 6, pp. 291-311, 1&15. 



