Safford: An Aztec Narcotic 



309 



MRS. ANNA B. NICKELS IN HER CACTUS GARDEN 



This veteran cactus lover, a resident of Laredo, Texas, called attention to the narcotic proper- 

 ties of Lophophora, and supplied to Parke, Davis & Co. material with which to investigate 

 the drug. Photograph by David Griffiths, U. S. Department of Agriculture. (Fig. 11.) 



form of communion, is related by 

 Padre Jacinto de la Serna, at that time 

 beneficiary of Tenantzingo. 



"To this meeting had come an Indian, 

 native of the pueblo of Tenango (about 

 25 kilometers from Toluca) and grand 

 master of superstitions, named Juan 

 Chichiton (or "John Little-dog"), who 

 had brought some of the mushrooms 

 that are gathered in the monte, arid with 

 these he had performed a great idolatry. 

 But before proceeding with my story 

 I wish to explain the nature of the said 

 mushrooms, which in the Mexican 

 language are called Quauhtlananacatl 

 ("wild mushrooms"). When I asked 



the licenciado Don Pedro Ponce de Leon 

 what they were like, he said that these 

 mushrooms were small and yellow, 

 and that they were collected by priests 

 and old men, appointed as ministers 

 for these impostures, who would proceed 

 to the place where they grow and remain 

 almost the whole night in prayer and in 

 superstitious conjuring; and at dawn, 

 when a certain little breeze known to 

 them would begin to blow, then they 

 would gather the narcotic, attributing 

 to it deity, with the same properties 

 as ololhihqui or peyote, since when 

 eaten or drunk, they intoxicate those 

 who partake of them, depriving them of 



