THE PAGE OF NATURE. 251 



indulgences, so natural to the human race, has, among 

 the Kamtschatkans and Koriacs, found its gratification 

 in an object so low in the scale of nature as a common 

 toad-stool. These races are so dreadfully degraded, that 

 they personify this fungus under the name of Mocho 

 Moro, as one of their household deities, somewhat like 

 the Goddess Siva of the Hindu Thugs ; if they are urged 

 by its effects to commit suicide, murder, or some other 

 dreadful crime, they pretend to obey its commands ; 

 and, to qualify themselves for premeditated assassination, 

 they have recourse to additional doses of this intoxicating 

 product of decay and corruption. 



This plant, around which such a dark and melancholy 

 interest gathers on account of its debasing associations, 

 is by no means rare in this country ; in fact, it appears 

 to be very generally distributed throughout the whole of 

 the temperate zone. In the Highlands of Scotland, and 

 the sub-alpine districts of England, it is very common 

 and abundant, particularly in woods of fir and birch, 

 where its tall white stem and rich orange scarlet cap, 

 studded with white scaly warts, frequently of portly 

 dimensions, form a beautiful contrast to the green carpet 

 of moss from which it springs, and the draperies of green 

 foliage that overshadow it. It is exceedingly abundant 

 in some parts of Kamtschatka and the northern districts 

 of Siberia ; the ground, in nearly every wood and thicket, 

 being almost concealed by its scarlet sheen. By the 

 natives it is collected during the brief summer months, 

 which in that climate are intensely hot. Sometimes 

 it is plucked up by the roots, and hung up in the 

 air outside their dwellings to dry, and sometimes it 



