208 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 175 



NAECOTICS 



Datura (ismaly katuh), which plays an important role in the 

 ritual of the Diegueiio Indians (Toffelmier and Luomala, 1936), 

 is not thouglit of as a genuine charm, although, according to Kroeber 

 (1925 a), persons who drink datura are believed to dream for 4 days 

 and to acquire thereby luck in gambling. As a rule, the few Mohave 

 who use datura do so principally for the purpose of obtaining a nar- 

 cotic dream experience ( Drucker, 1941 ) . According to my informants, 

 the entire plant, according to Kroeber (1925 a) , only the western foli- 

 age of datura— the eastern leaves being thought of as poisonous (a 

 tenet which was not known to my informant Pulyi:k)— and, accord- 

 ing to Drucker (1941), only the root is pounded, soaked in water, and 

 wrung out.^ The liquid is left standing until the undesirable particles 

 suspended therein settle on the bottom of the container. The remain- 

 ing liquid is then decanted and drunk. My informants described the 

 effects of datura as follows : "If a person drinks datura, he will walk 

 around, and may even fall into shallow water and sleep for 4 days." 

 At present, the few Mohave who partake occasionally of datura no 

 longer soak it, but merely chew a piece of the root. According to 

 Spier (1936) the Mohave, like the other Lower Colorado Yumans 

 and like the Maricopa, take datura individually to forecast the future, 

 and, unlike the Maricopa, also indulge in drinking datura in groups. 

 My informants simply specified that the Mohave take datura in order 

 to divine a boy's future as it relates to his warlike or other activities. 



Ptayi:Jc's statement.— If a boy's close relatives wished to find out what he 

 would become in adult life, they pounded the root of datura, and made him drink 

 it. Then, if the intoxicated boy was to become a warrior, his actions would betray 

 him : He would hit and try to kill people and would find carefully hidden weap- 

 ons. If he was to become a shaman, he would blow (saliva?) and press (people?) 

 with his left hand." 



This test, while formally different from the test to which children 

 suspected of transvestite inclinations were subjected (Devereux, 1937 

 b), has in common with the latter custom the fact that it is a test of 

 the youth's real inclinations, powers, and potentialities. The fact that 

 in a state of intoxication he could find hidden weapons is somewhat 

 reminiscent of the trance seance in the course of which persons who 

 were lost in enemy territory, as well as thieves, were located (pt. 7, 

 pp. 426-431) . (Cf. also Kroeber, 1957.) 



Although the intoxicating, sedative, and hypnotic effects of datura 

 were generally known, the Mohave did not take datura as a sedative, 

 and did not administer it to insomniac infants, whose fretfulness was 

 treated by means of sympathetic magic (pt. 6, pp. 257-260) . There is, 



" My Informants stated that only the root Is used in divining a boy's future as a warrior, 

 shaman, etc. 



