and eject the contents of his stomach into a vessel of water, which then
he placed out of doors to cool and collect; and from the rich, floating
vomit his wife and children would afterwards enjoy a hearty meal. The
lucky possessor of a stomach full of Vodki may, in a benevolent mood,
similarly dispose of a part of his repletion, minus the water, and away
to the Eastward, among the Tchuchees, families are often regaled even to
inebriation with the natural fluid discharge from the bodies of fortunate
tipplers.... Saving the natives themselves it is their most disgusting
institution, and if any Christian missionary be earnestly seeking a fresh
field to labor in, I can assure him that no soil is more desperately in
need of cultivation than the Tchuchee Country.”—(“In the Lena Delta,”
George W. Melville, Chief Engineer, U. S. Navy, Boston, Massachusetts,
1885, page 318.)
“_Amanita muscaria_ has been employed as fly-poison, whence its vulgar
name. M. Poquet states that climate does not modify its poisonous
qualities. The Czar Alexis died from eating it, yet the Kamtchatkans eat
it, or are said to do so, as also the Russians. In Siberia, it is used
as an intoxicating agent. Cook says it is taken as a bolus, and that its
effects combine those produced by alcohol and haschish. The property is
imparted to the fluid secretion (urine) of rendering it intoxicating,
which property it retains for a considerable time. A man, having been
intoxicated on one day and slept himself sober the next, will, by
drinking this liquor to the extent of about a cupful, become as much
intoxicated as he was before.... Urine is preserved in Siberia to this
end.... The intoxicating property may be communicated to any person who
partakes ... to the third, fourth, and even fifth distillation.”—(M. C.
Cook, “British Fungi,” London, 1882, pp. 21, 22.)
Henry Lamsdell (“Through Siberia,” London, 1882, vol. ii. p. 645)
describes the “fly agaric.” He says that it is used by the Koraks to
produce intoxication. “So powerful is the fungus that the native who eats
it remains drunk for several days; and by a process too disgusting to
be described, half a dozen individuals may be successively intoxicated
by the effects of a single mushroom, each in a less degree than his
predecessor.”
“The Koraks prepare the ‘muk-a-moor’ by steeping it. In a few minutes
the fortunate ones get thoroughly intoxicated, and imbibe to such an
extent that they are forced to relieve themselves of the superfluity,
on which occasions the poorer people stand prepared with bowls to catch
the liquid, which they quaff, and, in turn, become intoxicated. In this
manner, a whole settlement will sometimes get drunk from liquor consumed
by one individual.”—(Richard J. Bush, “Reindeer, Dogs and Snow-Shoes,”
London, no date, p. 357.)
Salverte gives two pages to a description of the effects of the “fly
agaric” or “mucha-more” of the Russians; he shows how it leads men to the
commission of murder, suicide, and other excesses, but makes no allusion
to the drinking of urine, although he quotes from Gmelin, Krachenninikof
and Beniowski, all of whom must have had some acquaintance with its
peculiar properties. According to Salverte the use of this fungus might
well be referred to the category of Sacred Intoxicants.—(See “Philosophy
of Magic,” Eusèbe Salverte, New York, 1862, vol. ii. pp. 19, 20.)
“Before the conquest, they seldom used anything for drink but water, but
when they made merry they drank water which had stood for some time upon
mushrooms; but of this more hereafter.”—(“History of Kamtchatka and the
Kurile Islands,” James Grieve, M. D., Gloucester, England, 1764, p. 195.)
See previous citation from the same author.
A mere reference to the trade carried on by the Russians and Kamtchadales
with the Koraks in _Agaricus muscarius_ is to be found in “Langsdorf’s
Voyages,” London, 1814, vol. ii. p. 318. “It is said that the sort of
mushroom which they procure from Kamtchadales is preferred by them as
a means of exhilaration or intoxication to brandy.” (Idem, p. 320.) He
adds: “Some remarks of mine upon this subject will be found in the Annals
of the Society for promoting the Knowledge of Natural History.”—(Idem, p.
321.)
“The use of the intoxicating fungus in Siberia, and that of the urine
flavored by it, is mentioned in Steller’s ‘History of Kamtchatka,’
which is, I believe, the earliest and best authority in reference to
it.”—(Personal letter from Hon. John S. Hittell, San Francisco, April 24,
1888.)
Although Grieve’s account is, in the main, derived from Steller, every
effort was made to find the latter author and examine his own language.
The copy belonging to the Library of Congress had been mislaid, and it
was not possible to find it; but the extensive Arctic Library of General
A. W. Greely, U. S. Army, the polar explorer, was most kindly placed at
the author’s disposal, and there the long-coveted volume was, translated
by Mr. Bunnemeyer, to whom the warmest acknowledgments are due.
George William Steller was born March 10, 1709, at Winsheim. In 1734, he
went to Russia, where he became an adjunct and member of The Imperial
Academy of Sciences. In 1758, he was delegated to explore Kamtchatka,
especially its natural history. After completing the task and making
voyages to various other regions, he attempted twice to return to St.
Petersburgh, but each time received orders to return to Irkutsk to
answer charges there brought against him. He did not reach Irkutsk the
second time, but was frozen to death while his guard entered a way-side
inn, and was buried at Tumen, in November, 1746. The following are his
remarks about poisonous mushrooms: “Among the Champignons, the poisonous
toadstool, called mucha-moor in Russian, is held in greatest esteem. At
the Russian ostrag it has long ago fallen into disfavor, but is used
so much the more in the vicinity of the Tzil and towards the Korakian
boundary. This mushroom is dried and swallowed in large pieces without
mastication, followed by large draughts of cold water. In the course of
half an hour, raging drunkenness and strange hallucinations result. The
Korakians and Jukagiri are still more addicted to this vice, and buy
the fungus from the Russians whenever they can. Those too poor to do so
collect the urine of those under the influence of the drug and drink it,
which makes them equally as drunk and raging.
“The urine is equally effective to the fourth and fifth man. Reindeer
frequently devour these mushrooms with great avidity, becoming drunk and
wild, and finally fall into a deep sleep. When found in this state, it is
not killed until the effects of the drug have passed away, as otherwise
its meat when eaten will cause the same frenzied intoxication as the
mushroom itself.”
“The dance and custom you describe as existing among the Siberians I know
nothing of. I neither saw nor heard of it. I do not think there is any
of the mushroom species in the Tchuktchi country. The land is absolutely
barren. I lived in the tents of that people for seven or eight months,
and they never paid any attention to me as a stranger, in the way of
hiding their customs from me. They would have their drumming and medicine
performances before me, just as though I was one of them. The custom you
allude to may prevail among the Yakouts and Tchuktchi, nevertheless, but
I think it more probable that it exists with the Northwest tribes, such
as the Samoyeds or Osjaks.”—(Personal letter from the Arctic explorer, W.
H. Gilder, author of “Schwatka’s Search,” etc., dated New York, Oct. 15,
1889.)
“Captain Healey, of the revenue cutter ‘Bear,’ brought to this place,
last autumn, a shipwrecked seaman, who had been rescued by the Siberian
Tchuktchis, with whom he remained some two years. He described their
mode of making an intoxicating liquor thus: in the summer, mushrooms or
fungi were collected in large quantity, and eaten by a man who, like
our Indians, prepared himself by fasting for the feast. After eating
enormous quantities of the fungi, he vomited into a receptacle, and again
loaded up, time and again, and disgorged the stuff in a semi-fermented or
half-digested condition. It was swallowed by those who were waiting for
the drink; and his urine was also imbibed, to aid in producing a debauch,
resulting in frenzied intoxication.”—(Personal letter from Surgeon B. J.
D. Irwin, U. S. army, dated San Francisco, Cal., April 28, 1888.)
“The seaman, J. B. Vincent, whom I found with the Tchuktchi last summer,
says that they collect in their tents a species of fungi, and during
their carnival season, corresponding to about our Christmas holidays, one
man is selected, who masticates a quantity of it, and drinks an enormous
supply of water; he then gets into his deer’s team, and is driven from
camp to camp, repeating the mastication and drinking at each camp, where
his urine is drunk by the people with an effect of intoxication. The
arrival of this man is hailed with much pomp and ceremony by the people.
The seaman, Vincent, witnessed several of these ceremonies, and was
pressed to join in the orgies, being called ‘a boy,’ when he declined to
sustain his part.”—(Personal letter from Capt. M. A. Healey, U. S. R. M.
Steamer “Bear,” dated San Francisco, Cal., May 19, 1888.)
Kamtchadales.—“These people formerly had no other drink than water, and
to make themselves a little lively they used to drink an infusion of
mushrooms.”—(“From Paris to Pekin,” Meignan, London, 1885, p. 281.)
D’Auteroche, who made a journey from St. Petersburgh to Tobolsk in
Siberia, in compliance with an invitation from the Empress Catherine, in
the middle of the last century, to observe the transit of Venus, makes no
mention of the mushroom-orgies of the natives. His work was not of much
value, in an ethnological sense, being largely restricted to descriptions
of the mineral resources of the regions traversed, and only to a slight
degree attending to the ethnology of the country.
It is strange that Maltebrun, although familiar with Steller, does not
refer to the mushroom orgy. He does say of the Kamtchadales: “In summer,
the women go into the woods to gather vegetables, and during this
occupation they give way to a libertine frenzy like that of the ancient
Bacchantes.”—(“Universal Geography,” American edition, Boston, Mass.,
1847, vol. i. p. 347, article “Siberia.”)
Stanley’s “Congo,” New York, 1885, was examined carefully, but no
reference to any use of urine or ordure was found in it.
An identical experience was had with the “Voyages” of John Struys,
translated out of the Dutch, by John Morrison, London, 1683, and with
Nordjenskold’s Voyages, translated by Horgaard, London, 1882.
As the two latter travellers had entered Siberia, it seemed probable that
they might have come upon traces of the Ur-orgies of some of the wild
tribes like the Koraks, Tchuktchi, and others.
Salverte’s opinion that this use of the mushroom may be included in the
category of Sacred Intoxicants, is shown to be accurate by a comparison
with the statement made by the shipwrecked sailor, Vincent, who
undoubtedly may be accepted as the most competent witness who has ever
presented himself.
According to him, there was a man “selected,” who “prepared himself
by fasting;” the “feast” took place “during their carnival season,”
“corresponding to about our Christmas holidays” (i. e., the winter
solstice), and there was much attendant “pomp and ceremony.” Add to this
the statement made by Grieve, “they maintain that whatever foolish things
they did, they only obeyed the commands of the mushroom,” and we have
the needed Personification to prove that the fungus was reverenced as a
deity, much as on another page will be shown that certain African tribes
apotheosized a member of the same vegetable family.
If not for Sacred Intoxication, then the question may be asked, For what
reason did the Siberians and others use the poisonous fungus? The only
answer possible is, that, in the absence of the cereals and under the
pressure of a desire for stimulants, the aborigines resorted to all kinds
of vegetable substances, as can be shown to have been the case from the
history of many nations. Mythology is replete with examples of the occult
virtues of plants, such as the mandrake and many others.
Certainly, the religious veneration with which they were regarded was not
more fully deserved than by this wonderful toxic,—the _Amanita muscaria_.
The thirst for stimulants has been very generally diffused all over the
world; there is no reason to believe that any tribe has existed without
an occasional use of something of the kind.
According to the Chinese, an alcoholic liquor called “Tsew” was invented
by Etoih, in the reign of To-ke, 2197 before the Christian era. See
“Chinese Repository,” Canton, 1841, vol. x. p. 126.
Mr. John McElhone, the stenographer of the House of Representatives and a
scholar of no mean attainments, stated to the author that he remembered
having read in an old volume, the name of which he could not recall, of
a feast given some centuries ago at the coronation of one of the kings
of Hungary, at which the nobles were regaled with the rarest wines, but
the plebeians were content to drink the resulting urine. There may be in
Hungary, whether we regard it as peopled by the Hun-oi, or, later, by the
Turkish element, an infusion of the same race-traits as are to be found
at this day in Kamtchatka and other portions of Siberia.
Salverte speaks of the intoxicating effects of the “muk-a-moor,” but
enters into no particulars. (See “Philosophy of Magic,” Eusebe Salverte,
New York, 1882, vol. ii. p. 19.)
The people of Kamtchatka make intoxicants out of certain herbs. (Steller,
“Kamtchatka,” translated by Mr. Bunnemeyer.) And we are further told
that, while the people are gathering these herbs, much prostitution
prevails, and everywhere there are willing girls in the grass.
“The settled Koraks” of Kamtchatka, “eat the intoxicating Siberian
toadstool in inordinate quantities; and this habit alone will in time
debase and brutalize any body of men to the last degree.”—(“Tent Life in
Siberia,” George Kennan, twelfth edition, New York, 1887, p. 233.)
No allusion to the use of mushrooms as an intoxicant can be found in
Sauer, “Expedition to the North Parts of Russia,” London, 1862. Henry
Seebohm (“Siberia in Asia,” London, 1882) makes no mention of the
urine-orgies of the inhabitants.
THE MUSHROOM DRINK OF THE BORGIE WELL.
The following paragraph deserves more than a passing mention:—
“The Borgie well, at Cambuslang, near Glasgow, is credited with making
mad those who drink from it; according to the local rhyme,
‘A drink of the Borgie, a bite of the weed,
Sets a’ the Cam’slang folk wrang in the head.’
The weed is the weedy fungi.”—(“Folk-Medicine,” Black, London, 1883, p.
104.)
Camden says that the Irish “delight in herbs, ... especially cresses,
mushrooms, and roots.”—(“Britannia,” edition of London, 1753, vol. ii. p.
1422.)
Other references to the Siberian fungus are inserted to afford students
the fullest possible opportunity to understand all that was available to
the author himself on this point.
“_Agaricus muscarius_ is one of the most injurious, yet it is used
as a means of intoxication by the Kamtchadales. One or two of them
are sufficient to produce a slight intoxication, which is peculiar in
its character. It stimulates the muscular powers and greatly excites
the nervous system, leading the partakers into the most ridiculous
extravagances.”—(American Cyclopædia, New York, 1881, article “Fungi.”)
_Agaricus muscarius._ “This is the ‘mouche-more’ of the Russians,
Kamtchadales, and Koriars, who use it for intoxication. They sometimes
eat it dry, and sometimes immerse it in a liquor made with the epilobium,
and when they drink this liquor they are seized with convulsions in all
their limbs, followed by that kind of raving which attends a burning
fever. They personify this mushroom, and if they are urged by its effects
to suicide or any dreadful crime, they pretend to obey its commands. To
fit themselves for premeditated assassination they recur to the use of
the ‘mouche-more.’ A powder of the root, or of that part of the stem
which is covered by the earth, is recommended in epileptic cases, and
externally applied for dissipating hard, globular swellings and for
healing ulcers.”—(Cyclopædia, Philadelphia, no date, Samuel Bradford,
vol. i. article “Agaric.”)
“One of the most poisonous species of the genus is the ‘fly agaric,’ so
named because the fungus is often steeped and the solution used for the
destruction of the house-fly.... It is as attractive and as poisonous as
it is beautiful. In Kamtchatka, it is highly prized for its poisonous
properties, producing, as it does, in the eater a peculiar intoxication.
The fungus is gathered and dried; and when a native wishes to engage in a
debauch, he has but to swallow a piece, when in a few hours he will be in
his glory.”—(Johnson’s New Universal Cyclopædia, New York, 1878, article
“Mushroom.”)
Poisonous fungi. “Several of this natural order are poisonous, especially
those belonging to the genera _Amanita_ and _Agaricus_.... The sufferers
are often relieved by vomiting.”—(Encyclopædia Britannica, edition of
1841, article “Medical Jurisprudence,” vol. xiv. pp. 506, 507.) Speaking
of the poisonous fungi, the same authority says: “The effects are
singularly various, ... among them being giddiness, confusion, delirium,
stupor, coma, and convulsions.”—(Idem, vol. xviii. p. 178, article
“Poison.”)
“The boletus mentioned by Juvenal on account of the death of the Emperor
Claudius.”—(Cyclopædia, Philadelphia, no date, vol. xxv. article
“Mushroom.”)
There are several allusions to the custom of poisoning with mushrooms to
be found in Juvenal,—for example, in the first and fifth satires.
Tacitus says that when Claudius was poisoned the poison “was poured into
a dish of mushrooms.”—(“Annals,” Oxford translation, Bohn, London, 1871,
lib. 12.)
After the Emperor Claudius had been poisoned by mushrooms given by his
wife Messalina, the Emperor Nero, his successor, was wont to call the
boletus “the food of the gods.” (See footnote to Rev. Lewis Evans’s
translation of the sixth satire of Juvenal, p. 64, edition of New York,
1860, citing Suetonius’s “Nero,” Tacitus’s “Annals,” and Martial’s
“Epigrams,” I. epistle XXI.)
Plutarch says that it was a common opinion that “thunder engenders
mushrooms.”—(“Morals,” Goodwin’s English edition, Boston, 1870, vol. iii.
p. 298.)
Gilder, who crossed over Siberia from Behring’s Straits to St.
Petersburgh, stopping _en route_ with many of the wild tribes, makes
no allusion to the use of the “muck-a-moor” or to any Ur-orgy. (See
“Ice-pack and Tundra,” New York, 1883.)
“The _Agaricus muscarius_ is used by the natives of Kamtchatka and Korea
to produce intoxication.”—(Ure’s “Dictionary of Arts, Manufactures, and
Mines,” London, 1878, vol. ii. article “Fungi.”)
“Their reputation as aphrodisiacs is thought to be unfounded, having
its origin in the old doctrine of resemblances.” (American Cyclopædia,
New York, 1881, article “Fungi.”) Probably from the appearance of the
“phallus” fungus.
There seems to have been some superstition attaching to the elder dating
from very remote times. It is said in Gerrard’s “Herbal,” Johnson’s
edition, page 1428, “that the _arbor Judæ_ is thought to be that whereon
Judas hanged himself, and not upon the elder-tree, as is vulgarly said.”
I am clear that the mushrooms or excrescences of the elder-tree, called
_auriculæ Judæ_ in Latin, and commonly rendered “Jew’s-ears,” ought to be
translated “Judas’s-ears,” from the popular superstition above mentioned.
Coles, in his “Adam in Eden,” speaking of “Jew’s-ears,” says: “It is
called in Latin _Fungus Sambucinum_ and _Auriculæ Judæ_, some having
supposed the elder-tree to be that whereon Judas hanged himself, and
that ever since these mushrooms like unto ears have grown thereon, which
I will not persuade you to believe.” In “Paradoxical Assertions,” is a
silly question,—“why Jews are said to stink naturally. Is it because the
‘Jew’s ears’ grow on stinking elder, which tree the fox-headed Judas
was supposed to have hanged himself on, so that natural stink hath been
entailed on them and their posterity as it were _ex traduce_? The elder
seems to have been given in the time of Queen Elizabeth as a token of
disgrace. It was credited with the power to cure epilepsy, to strengthen
the loins of men, especially in riding, as it prevented all gall and
chafing, etc., and had additionally the property of making horses
stale.”—(Brand, “Popular Antiquities,” London, 1872, vol. iii. p. 283,
article “Physical Charms.”)
_Sambucus_ (elder) is mentioned by Frommann as a remedy for
epilepsy.—(“Tractatus de Fascinatione,” Nuremberg, 1675, p. 270.)
Have we not a right to inquire why in primitive pharmacy certain
remedies were employed? The principle of _similia similibus_ is very old
and deeply rooted. Perhaps the fungus of the elder may have once been
employed in inducing intoxication and frenzy.
“The Ostiaks, the Kamtchadales, and other inhabitants of Asiatic Russia,
find in one of the gild-bearing family—the _Amanita muscaria_—the
exhilaration and madness that more civilized nations demand and receive
of alcohol, and enjoy a narcotism from its extracts as seductive as that
of opium. The Fiji Islanders are indebted to toadstools strung on a
string for girdles which alone prevent them from being classed among the
‘poor and naked,’ and their sole æsthetic occupation lies in ornamenting
their limited wardrobe. The Fiji fishermen especially value them highly
because they are water-proof. Cerdier tells us that the negroes on the
west coast of Africa exalt a certain kind of boletus to the sacredness of
a god, and bow down in worship before it; for this reason Afzeltus has
named this variety _boletus sacer_. A French chemist has extracted wax
from the milk-giving kind, but has not stated the price of candles made
from it. Others of the delving fraternity have shown that toadstools may
be used in the manufacture of Prussian blue instead of blood, for, like
certain animal matter, they furnish prussic acid. As fungi, after the
manner of all animal life, breathe oxygen and throw off carbonic acid
gas, their flesh partakes of animal rather than of vegetable nature.
“In their decomposition they are capital fertilizers of surrounding
plants, and in seasons when they are plentiful it will repay the
agriculturist to make use of them as manure.
“According to Linnæus, the Lapps delighted in the perfume of some
species, and carried them upon their persons so that they might be the
more attractive. Linnæus exclaims, ‘O Venus! thou that scarcely sufficest
thyself in other countries with jewels, diamonds, precious stones, gold,
purple, music, and spectacle, art here satisfied with a simple toadstool!’
“A variety of boletus—a tube-bearing species—is powdered, and used
as a protector of clothing against insects. The _Agaricus muscarius_
constitutes a well-known poison to the common house-fly. It intoxicates
them to such a degree that they can be swept up and destroyed.
“Certain polypori—those large, dry, corky growths found upon logs
and trees—when properly seasoned, sliced, and beaten, engage large
manufactories in producing from them the punk of commerce, used by the
surgeon for the arrest of hemorrhage, the artist for his shading stump,
and the Fourth of July urchin for his pyrotechnic purposes. A species
of polyporus is used in Italy as scrubbing brushes. In countries where
fire-producing is unknown or laborious, and the luxury of lucifers
denied, the dried fungus enables the transportation of fire from one
place to another over great distances.
“The inhabitants of Franconia use the hammered slices instead of
chamois-skin for underclothing.
“Another polyporus takes its place among manufacturers as the highly
necessary razor-strop. Northern nations make bottle-stoppers of them, as
their corky nature suggests. The polyporus of the birch-tree (_Polyporus
betulinus_) increases the delight of smokers by its delicious flavor when
mixed with tobacco.”—(Lippincott’s Magazine, Philadelphia, Penn., 1888.)