406 ANNUAL EEPOKT SMITHSONIAN" INSTirUTTON, 1916. 



calls attention to the occurrence of its seed-pods " in the ruins of the 

 ancient people who once filled this land and guarded every spring 

 with towers of stone." ^ Stephen Powers found this same plant in 

 use as an intoxicant and hypnotic by the priests and wizards of the 

 Yokuts Indians inhabiting the banks of the Tule 

 River and Lake Tulare in California.^ Dr. Ed- 

 Avard Palmer states that a decoction of the plant 

 is given by certain California Indians to their 

 young women to stimulate them in dancing, and 

 that an extract of its root is used as an intoxicant 

 ^ „ ^., , by the Pah-Utes.^ Other authorities state that 



Fig. 6. — Stone mortar, •' ^ 



used by the Call- the Mariposan Indians of California, including 

 fornia Indians for ^^^^ Noches, or Yokuts, already mentioned, use a 



grinding root of Da- _ ' . . . 



tura meteioides for decoctiou of Datuva meteloldes in the ceremonial 

 ceremonial purposes, initiation of their youths into the status of man- 

 hood ; and the medicine men of the Hualpais, or Walapais, belonging 

 to the Yuman stock, indulge in a sacred intoxication by breaking up 

 the leaves, twigs, and root of this plant to make a beverage which 

 induces an exhilaration accompanied by prophetic utterances.* 



THE SACRED OLOLIUHQUI OF THE AZTECS. 

 (Plate 8.) 



This narcotic, beyond all doubt the seeds of a datura, or possibly 

 two species of datura, played an important part in the religion of 

 the ancient Mexicans and in the practices of their medicine men or 

 necromancers. 



Sahagun, about 1569, called attention to this plant in the following 

 words : 



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

 produces a seed called ololiuhqui which intoxicates and causes madness (en- 

 loquece). It is administered in potions in order to cause harm to those who 

 are objects of hatred. Those who eat it have visions of fearful things. Magi- 

 cians or those who wish to harm some one administer it in food or drink. 

 This herb is medicinal, and its seed is used as a remedy for gout, ground up 

 and applied to the part affected. " 



In other accounts it is stated that in Mexico it was believed that 

 this plant, like the peyotl would give to those who ate it the power 

 of second sight and prophecy, by means of which they could discover 

 the identity of a thief, if an object had been stolen, or could predict 

 the outcome of a war or the intended attack of a hostile tribe. 



In the descriptions of ololiuhqui there are many discrepancies, 

 owing possibly to the fact that the same name was applied to two or 



1 Zee, 3 : 360. 1892. 



- See Contr. North Amer. Ethn. 3 : 380 and 428. 1877. 

 3 Amer. Nat. 12 : 650. 1878. 



* See Bourlte, John G. On the Border with Crook, p. 165. 1892. 



^ Sahagun, Bernardino de. Hist. Gen. de las Cosas de Nueva Espaiia, 3 : 241 (ed. 

 Bustamante), Mexico. 1830. 



