Io6 pFant "bore, Tsege^/, onGl "bLjric/. 



balls of the size of a Chestnut. Having swallowed some of these, 

 and thereby produced a species of intoxication, they experience 

 ecstatic visions. 



Among the Brahmins, the Soma, a sacred drink prepared from 

 the pungent juice of the Asclcpias acida, or Cyanchum viminale, was 

 one of the means used to produce the ecstatic state. Soma juice 

 was employed to complete the phrensied trances of the Indian Yogis 

 or seers : it is said to have the effect of inducing the ecstatic state, 

 in which the votary appears in spirit to soar beyond the terrestrial 

 regions, to become united with Brahma, and to acquire universal 

 lucidity {clairvoyance). Windischmann observes that in the remote 

 past, the mystic Soma was taken as a holy act — a species of sacra- 

 ment ; and that, by this means, the soul of the communicant 

 became united with Brahma. It is frequently said that even 

 Parashpati partook of this celestial beverage, the essence, as it is 

 called, of all nourishment. In the human sacrifices, the Soma- 

 drmk was prepared with magical ceremonies and incantations, by 

 which means the virtues of the inferior and superior worlds were 

 supposed to be incorporared with the potion. 



John Weir speaks of a plant, growing on Mount Lebanon, 

 which places those who taste it in a state of visionary ecstacy; and 

 Gassendi relates that a fanatical shepherd in Provence prepared 

 himself for the visionary and prophetic state by using Stramonium. 



The Laurel was held specially sacred to Apollo, and the 

 Pythia who delivered the answer of the god to those who consulted 

 the famous oracle at Delphi, before becoming inspired, shook a 

 Laurel-tree that grew close by, and sometimes ate the leaves with 

 which she crowned herself. A Laurel-branch was thought to 

 impart to prophets the faculty of seeing that which was obscure or 

 hidden ; and the tree was believed to possess the property of 

 inducing sleep and visions. Among the ancients it was also 

 thought useful in driving away spectres. Evelyn, remarking on the 

 custom of prophets and soothsayers sleeping upon the boughs and 

 branches of trees, or upon mattresses composed of their leaves, 

 tells us that the Laurel and Agnus Ca5^«5 were plants " which greatly 

 composed the phansy, and did facilitate true visions, and that the 

 first was specially efficacious to inspire a poetical fury." According 

 to Abulensis, he adds, "such a tradition there goes of Rebekah, the 

 wife of Isaac, in imitation of her father-in-law." And he thinks it 

 probable that from that incident the Delphic Tripos, the Dodonaean 

 Oracle in Epirus, and others of a similar description, took their 

 origin. Probably, when introducing the Jewish fortune-tellers in 

 his sixth satire, Juvenal alludes to the practice of soothsayers and 

 sibyls sleeping on branches and leaves of trees, in the lines — 



"With fear 

 The poor she-Jew begs in my Lady's ear, 

 The grove's high-priestess, heaven's true messenger, 

 Jerusalem's old laws expounds to her." 



