BULL. 30] 



PETUTEK PEYTRE 



237 



Petutek [PEtu't^k, or PtVtEk, 'little 

 spring [of water]'). A village of the 

 Nicola band of the Ntlakyapaniuk, 41 m. 

 above Spences Bridge, Brit. Col. — Teit in 

 Mem. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., ii, 174, 1900. 



Pewikwithltchu ( Pe^ - v:i - Iwlthl - tch u, 

 ' grass swallowers,' in allusion to their 

 drinking dew and rain water ) . An aborig- 

 inal people, mentioned in Zufii tradition 

 as having lived at a settlement about 13 

 m. s. of the present Zuni pueblo. See 

 Shurniiikijdiinan. (f. h. c. ) 



Peyotan ('peyote place'). A Cora 

 pueblo and seat of a mission near the e. 

 bank of Rio San Pedro, about lat. 22° 40^ 

 Jalisco, Mexico. Santa Rosa was its 

 visila. 

 S. Juan Peyotan.— Orozco y Berra, Geog., 280, 1864. 



Peyote (Spanish derivative from the 

 N-dhuatl peyotl, 'caterpillar,' referring to 

 the downy center of the ' ' button " ) . A 

 species of small cactus, variously classified 

 as Anhaloi inm or Lophopliora (Coulter), 

 found in the arid, hills along the lower 

 Rio Grande and southward in Mexico; 

 formerly and still much used for cere- 

 monial and medicinal purposes by all the 

 tribes between the Rocky mts. and the 

 Gulf of Mexico, from Arkansas r. south- 

 ward, almost to the City of Mexico. 

 Among the various tril^es it is known un- 

 der different names, as seni (Kiowa); 

 v'okoni (Comanche); hikori or hikull 

 (Tarahumare). By the whites it is com- 

 monly but incorrectly known as "mes- 

 cal," from a confusion with the maguey 

 cactus of the S. W. from which the tiery 

 intoxicant mescal is prepared. In ap- 

 pearance the peyote plant resembles a 

 radish in size and shape, the top only 

 appearing above ground. From the cen- 

 ter springs a beautiful white blossom, 

 which is later displaced by a tuft of white 

 down. N. of the Rio Grande this top 

 alone is used, being sliced and dried to 

 form the so-called "button." In Mexico 

 the whole jilant is cut into slices, dried, 

 and used in decoction, while the cere- 

 mony also is essentially different from 

 that of the northern tribes. 



Some chemical study of the plant was 

 made liy the German chemist Lewin as 

 early as' 1888, but the first knowledge of 

 its ritual use was given to the world in 

 1891 by James Mooney, of the Bureau of 

 American Ethnology, who had witnessed 

 the ceremony while engaged in ethno- 

 logic investigations among the Kiowa, 

 and brought back to Washington a large 

 quantity for medical and psychologic ex- 

 perimentation. Tests thus far made indi- 

 cate that it possesses varied and valuaV)le 

 medicinal propert ies, tending to confirm 

 the idea of the Indians, who regard it 

 almost as a panacea. 



Among the Tarahumare and others of 

 Mexico the chief feature of the ceremony, 



as described by Lumholtz, in a dance. 

 Among the Kiowa, Comanche, and other 

 Plains tribes it is rather a ceremony of 

 prayer and quiet contemplation. It is 

 usually performed as an invocation for 

 the recovery of some sick person. It is 

 held in a tipi specially erected for the 

 imrpose, and begins usually at night, con- 

 tinuing until the sun is well up in the 

 morning. As many men as can sit com- 

 fortably within the tipi circle may par- 

 ticipate, but, as a rule, women do not 

 take part in the ceremony proper, but 

 occupy themselves with the preparation 

 of the sacred food and of the feast in 

 which all join at the close of the perfor- 

 mance. A fire is kept burning in the cen- 

 ter of the tipi, inclosed within a crescent- 

 shaped mound, on the top of which is 

 placed a sacred peyote. Following an 

 opening prayer by the chief priest, four 

 peyotes are distributed to each partici- 

 pant, who chews and swallows them, 

 after which the sacred songs begin to the 

 accompaniment of the drum and rattle, 

 each man singing four songs in turn, and 

 are kept up all night, varied by the in- 

 tervals of prayer and other distributions 

 of peyote, with a peculiar baptismal cere- 

 mony at midnight. The number of ' ' but- 

 tons" eaten by one individual during the 

 night varies from 10 to 40, and even more, 

 the drug producing a sort of spiritual ex- 

 altation differing entirely from that pro- 

 duced by any other known drug, and 

 apparently without any reaction. The 

 effect is heightened by the weird lullaby 

 of the songs, the constant sound of the 

 drum and rattle, and the fitful glare of 

 the fire. At some point during the cere- 

 mony the sick person is usually brought 

 in to be prayed for, and is allowed to eat 

 one or more specially consecrated peyotes. 

 At daylight the Morning Star song is sung, 

 when the women pass in the sacred food, 

 of which each worshiper partakes, and 

 the ceremony concludes with the Meat 

 song. The rest of the morning is given 

 to friendly gossip, followed by a dinner 

 under leafy arbors, after which the various 

 families disperse to their homes. 



Consult Lewin, Ueber Anhalonium 

 Lewinii, 1888; Lumholtz (1) Tarahumari 

 Dances and Plant Worship, 1894, (2) 

 Symbolism of the Huichol Indians, 1900, 

 (3) Unknown Mexico, 1902; Mooney, The 

 Mescal Plant and Ceremony, and Prentiss 

 and Morgan, Therapeutic t -ses of Mescal 

 Buttons, 1896; Moonev, Calendar History 

 of the Kiowa, 17th Rep. B. A. E., 1898; 

 Ellis, Mescal, 1898; Urbina, El Pevote y 

 el Ololiuhqui, 1900. (j. m.) 



Peytre. Mentioned as a pueblo of the 

 province of Atripuy (q. v.), in the region 

 of the lower Rio Grande, N. Mex., in 

 1598.— Onate (1598) in Doc. Ined., xvi, 

 115, 1871. 



