a.LMORcl TAXONOMIC LIST OF PLANTS JQS 



it are attended by nnuh rirnnu.stance of ceren.ony and symbolism. 

 The average Indian, ^vlth his psychic inheritance and his physical 

 and psycmc environment, naturally attributes to the pevote most 

 wonderful mystic powers. As the Semitic mind could conceive, and 

 the Aryan mind could accept the Semitic conception, that deity mav 

 be incarnated in an animal body-that is, a human bo<lv-so to the 

 American Indum mind it seems just as reasonable to conceive that 

 deity may dwell in a plant body. So he pays the plant divine honors, 

 making prayers to it or in connection with it, and eating it or drink- 

 ing a decocti(m of it in order to appropriate the divi'iie spirit— to 

 induce the good, and exorcise the evil. In brief, the use of peyote by 

 the Indian corresponds to the Christian use of lircad and wine in tlu- 

 eucharist. 



The body of doctrine and belief connected with tliis cult is a 

 curious blending of aboriginal American religious ideas with many 

 imbibed by the Indians from diristian missionaries. In the meet- 

 ing places the worshipers gather in a circle about a fireplace 

 in the center of the lodge or tent. A fire is kept up throughout the 

 meeting. At the west side of the fire sits the leader. In front of him 

 is spread a cloth like an altar cloth; on this lies a peyote top, 

 and at the edge nearest to the leader an open Bible. At liis right 

 hand stands a staff symbolically decorated with feather ornamen- 

 tation. In his hand he carries a fun made of 12 eagle feathers 

 symbolizing the 12 Christian apostles. A water drum is beaten 

 with a low insistent thrumming sound, accompanied by a gourd 

 rattle, while songs are chanted, and the people gaze into the fire or 

 sit with l)0wed head. Owing to the hypnotic effect of the firelight, 

 the community of thought, abstraction from all extraneous atfaii's, 

 the droning chant, the thrumming of the drum, and the mental 

 attitude of expectancy induced by the words of the speakers, who 

 discourse on the visions which shall be seen, combined with the 

 physiological effect of the drug, which stimulates the optic center, 

 the people fancy they really see most wonderful visions of spirits. 

 As an example, the vision descrilied by a certain Omaha may be 

 related. It will be observed that his vision was the result of the 

 juxtaposition of a number of experiences and mental processes re- 

 called and immediately induced by the circumstances of the meeting 

 and the physiologic action of the drug. Tie was an ordinary reser- 

 vation Indian, who had had some schooling and had been in Wash- 

 ington and other eastern cities. On this occasion the opening read- 

 ing from the Bible had been the story of the Hebrew prophet taken 

 up to heaven in a chariot of fire. The Indian fell into a trancelike 

 state and afterwards described his vision. He related that Jesus had 

 come for him in an automoI)ile and had taken him up to heaven, 

 where he had seen God in His glory in a splendid city, and with God 



