Several matters regarding the botany of peyote should be discussed, for
their having given rise to legends about the plant. After discussing the
nefarious uses to which the Chichimeca put peyote, Hernandez writes that
on this account the root scarcely issues forth, but conceals
itself in the ground, as if it did not wish to harm those who
discover and eat it.[7]
Dr. Parsons[8] recounts a Taos origin legend in which peyote acts even
more spectacularly. A warrior on the war-path heard a singing, and when
he approached,
the plant would go open and shut like this [the narrator moves
his finger-tips close together and then opens them].... Then
the plant told the Indian to come inside. But the opening was
so small. Then it got bigger; it got to be a big hole in the
ground, a square hole. The Indian went down the hole. There was
a big hollow place down there in the ground, round like a kiva.
And the story continues, telling of how the Indian learned the peyote
rite from the man in the kiva. On scrutiny this appears to be the Kiowa
origin legend for peyote, modified by the addition of familiar Pueblo
folk-tale motifs. The Kiowa themselves say,
you must look closely at peyote, because it is like a mole when
it comes on top of the ground—if you don’t look closely it is
gone again.
These curious legends, however, are not without some histological[9]
and ecological reality. In this semi-desert region the subterranean
funnel-formed tap-root of the plant is covered with woody scales which
form a rigid shell. Rouhier writes:[10]
All this chlorophyll-region [the portion above the ground] is
tumid, plump and fleshy, firm and elastic to the touch, when,
after the season of heavy rains, the plant is replete and
vigorous. During the hot season it droops and shrivels, becomes
soft, and has a dull rumpled look. It retracts then into the
rigid cylinder formed by the desiccated corky desquammated
part of the stem; the plant literally gives the impression
of pulling its head into its neck. (M. Diguet has told us
that the plant, at this time, buries itself in the soil, as
though drawn, by a powerful force of traction of its adventive
radicles, at the base of the funnel which its tap-root has
bored.)
Another matter of ethnobotanical interest concerns the supposed existence
of two varieties of peyote.[11] In discussing Peyotl Zacatensis
Hernandez[12] writes that “they say they are male and female.” The
Huichol likewise distinguish two kinds of Peyote, one, the more
active and bitter in taste and presenting smaller and more numerous
mammillations on the surface, called Tzinouritehua-hicouri, “Peyotl of
the Gods,” the other, whose physiological effect is less pronounced,
called Rhaïtoumuanitarihua-hicouri, “Peyotl of the Goddesses.” In the
opinion of Rouhier,[13] “The Peyotl of the Goddesses ... is the young
form of _Echinocactus williamsii_ [= _Lophophora williamsii_], and the
Peyotl of the Gods is its adult form.”
Nor is this the end of the matter. It is well known that sex is
attributed to plants in the Plains, but there is also a well-defined
pattern regarding the sex[14] specifically of peyote throughout Mexico
and the Plains. The Huichol have a tutelary goddess for peyote called
Hatzimouika; the peyote deity of the Tarahumari, on the other hand, is
male, and great reverence is paid by them to the hikuli walúla sälíami,
or “hikuli great authority,” literally, who is surrounded by smaller
plants, his “servants,” and who, not satisfied with mere sheep and goats,
demands the sacrifice of oxen.
Being persons, peyote plants naturally talk and sing on occasion.
Lumholtz[15] writes of the Tarahumari belief that
in the fields in which it grows, it sings beautifully, that the
Tarahumare may find it. It says, “I want to go to your country,
that you may sing your songs to me.” ... It also sings in the
bag while it is being carried home. One man, who wanted to use
his bag as a pillow, could not sleep, he said, because the
plants made so much noise.
Bennett and Zingg[16] mention the Tarahumari belief that the singing one
hears as the bakánawa moves about in the night near the sleeper may be
made clearer by chewing a bit of the plant. Indeed, Mooney[17] says the
Tarahumari find the peyote by hearing its song, Híkurówa, which it sings
day and night. Peyote speaks to the Tarahumari shaman during the night of
dancing and curing, and encourages him with words and by singing to him.
The fetish-plant in the ceremony proper is placed on the altar under a
half-gourd resonator; the rasping of the shaman, thus amplified, is very
pleasing to peyote, who manifests his strength by the amount of noise
produced with his aid.
In the Plains, however, when pleased with the singing, the peyote goddess
actually joins in with it.[18] The Kiowa call her sęⁱmąyi, literally,
“Peyote Woman.” Mooney describes a Kiowa peyote rattle on which she
is represented, and at her feet the Morning Star, which heralds her
approach. A Taos origin legend for peyote tells of a warrior abandoned
by his companions, who heard a singing and rattling near where he lay,
and finally discovered it coming from the blossom in the center of the
top of the plant.
The Shawnee[19] say that if you listen carefully you can “catch songs”
from Peyote Woman. The Kickapoo likewise have the concept of the peyote
“goddess” who sometimes sings in meetings when pleased; one informant
further said that “the spirit of a woman who had been faithful to peyote
sings after she has passed away. Sometimes we put pieces of food near
the fire for spirits of a dead man or woman or child. Sometimes you hear
a man’s voice too.” The Lipan say they hear “Changing Woman’s” voice in
peyote meetings. The Wichita believe it is kicu·ídie, “the woman who
stays in the water,” and her little son, wi·ḱιdiwιdá, “the boy who rolls
along the banks of the water,” who are mentioned in prayer, and who give
power in meetings. The “peyote-woman” belief is attenuated elsewhere in
the Plains.[20]