USEFUL WILD PLANTS 



the commonest species is D. meteloides, DC., called 

 toloache by Mexicans and Indians. This, like sev- 

 eral species of Spanish America, has played a note- 

 worthy part in the ceremonial life of our aborigines. 

 An infusion of the plant was customarily adminis- 

 tered in certain rites, as those of puberty; and it 

 was a drug commonly resorted to by medicine men 

 to induce a hypnotic state or a condition evocative 

 of prophecy. Only a little while ago a California 

 Indian expressed to me his faith in the power of 

 toloache to unravel mysteries and reveal the where- 

 abouts of lost animals. The likelihood of death from 

 overindulgence makes its employment risky, and it 

 is nowadays comparatively neglected. Among the 

 New Mexico Zunis, the blossom of this Datura is a 

 sacred flower, and a representation of it figures as 

 an adornment of the women in some of their dances. 

 Mrs. Stevenson in her ' ' Ethnobotany of the Zuni 

 Indians, " 5 records a legend about this flower worthy 

 of Ovid. It seems that long, long ago while the Zunis 

 still dwelt in the underworld, a boy and a girl, 

 brother and sister, found a way up into this world of 

 light, and would take long walks upon the earth, 

 wearing upon their heads Datura flowers. And so 

 they learned many wonderful things, and had many 



5 30th Ann. Kept. Bureau of American Ethnology. 



250 



