One of the Tamaulipecan tribes would usually hold feasts for
only those of its own community, or it would invite some
of those that were neighbors and friends. They took place
generally by night. Devoting two or three previous days to
the preparation of a sufficient quantity of peyote, and the
gathering of fruits of the season, and in allotting certain
fruits of the chase, which, broiled on the hearth that
illuminated the feast, were served at a common banquet. The
feast always had an object among these peoples. With feasts
they celebrated the beginning of summer, which was the season
least rigorous for these nude people, or the abundant harvests
of corn, or of forest fruits, or their victory in some attack
on their enemies. When these feasts were held for one tribe
alone they took place commonly in the rancherías where they
lived permanently. But when one who was promoting the feast
invited some of his neighbors, then he chose an intermediate
point between the two places that they inhabited, and that
was picked out generally in the most inaccessible or hidden
places in the mountains. As soon as everything was prepared for
the banquet and the guests had collected, a great bonfire was
lighted. They placed around it the fruits of the hunt prepared
before hand. Those that took part in the dance immediately
formed a circle around the fire, and to the measured beats of
the drum (the drum was made of an aro of wood over which they
attached the parchment of a deer or a coyote) which, united
with the voices, composed the music. They took part in the
dance alternately raising one foot and then the other, or the
whole circle started circling around the fire. During the dance
dancers and spectators broke out in discordant howls, each one
reciting in his own strophes, alluding to the cause that was
motivating the feast. Of this versification I have already
previously given you an idea: relative to the celebration
of some triumph gained in their skirmishes; and in the same
way they directed their phrases to the sun, to the moon, and
to the clouds, when they were enjoying good weather; to the
earth and to the rain when they had an abundance of fruit; and
finally to their strength and bravery when they recalled their
hunts in the mountains or their wars. The poetic enthusiasm
of the guests became more animated with the first fumes of
the peyote, which, placed on a counter that was improvised on
the trunk of a tree, was served to them by young Indian girls
and the old men, and in the same gourds, jars, or rude baked
clay vases. This class of feast always used to end with the
complete drunkenness of all the guests, who, exhausted moreover
by the dance, fell asleep around the almost burnt-out fire.
[As previously noted, prophecy was a feature of these rites].
In addition to these feasts that are called mitotes, they also
have other games and recreation during the hours of the day,
such as ball, fighting, and foot-racing; and these games are
often that which gives the motive for their mutual discontent,
and sometimes precipitates formal wars among them.
We note in this account the connection of peyote with corn harvests, deer
hunting and war; and dancing, racing and a morning ceremony are also
mentioned. Regarding the ball-game:[54]
Among the Acaxee [peyote] was reported to have been placed on
one side of a ball ground during a game; its further use here
is unknown, but it is likely that it was taken in small doses
by the players during the game, as is done in the kicking race
of the Tarahumare in modern times.
Chichimecan peyote-eating appears to be connected with war:
Those that eat it or drink it see frightening and laughable
visions. This spree lasts two or three days and then stops. It
is a common food of the Chichimecas, for it stimulates them and
it gives them sufficient spirit to fight and have neither fear,
thirst, nor hunger, and they say it guards them from all danger.
The Zacatecan use of peyote seems likewise to pertain to war, since they
eat it to learn the outcome of battles. The drugging and ceremonial
wounding of the father of a new-born male child, further, is to augur its
valor in war. The Caxcane used peyote ceremonially, with associations
unknown to us, but the Tlaxcaltecan use points again, though uncertainly,
to war. Preuss writes that “the god of the Morning-Star has a close
relationship to this cactus, among the Huichol,” and the Morning Star has
definite war associations.[55]
Dancing is commonly associated with peyotism in the Mexican area, being
recorded for the Comecrudo, Chichimeca, Cora, Huichol, Tamaulipecan,
Tarahumari and Lipan.[56] Use in ritual racing is known for the
Tarahumari, Huichol and Tamaulipecan tribes; and the Acaxee tied strips
of deer-hide or -hooves (the word used means either) on the instep as
an aid in climbing hills—a custom recalling the carrying of hikuli-deer
in racing and the Wichita use of mescal beans. The ritualized journey
for peyote is recorded for the Cora, Huichol, Tarahumari, Tepecano and
somewhat doubtfully for the Tlaxcaltecan.[57]
The ceremonial fire has no definitive association with peyotism in
Mexico,[58] though it is a prerequisite of the Plains rite even on the
hottest summer nights; nor has the copal incense of the Huichol and
Tarahumari any relation to the Plains use of sage and cedar.[59] The
corn shuck cigarette among the Huichol and Tarahumari is, furthermore,
in a somewhat different context, though Plains ceremonial cigarettes
are certainly Mexico-Southwest in origin.[60] The gourd rattle is Mayo,
Tarahumari, Gila River Pima, Walapai, Havasupai, Pueblo, Mescalero,
Lipan, Karankawa, Wichita, Seri, Chitimacha, Cherokee, Creek, Koasati
and Yuchi (i.e., southern Mexico, the Southwest, peripheral Plains and
Southeast) and therefore has no special association with peyote, though
again, it may be the origin of the gourd rattle in the central and
northern Plains.[61] Though the staff is a constant feature in the Plains
ceremony, in Mexico[62] this is decidedly not the case. The shaman’s
rasp among peyote-using tribes is noted only for the Cora, Huichol and
Tarahumari—and has a far wider distribution among non-users of peyote,
while being absent in the Plains rite.[63] The Tamaulipecan aro with
drumhead of coyote- or deer-skin is unlike the peyote drum of the north,
and further, the use of the drum is untypical in the Mexican rite.[64]
On the other hand, the use of parched corn is more clearly a part of
Mexican peyotism, as is also deer-hunting.[65] “Plant-worship” is most
evident perhaps for the Tarahumari, who revere hikuli, bakánawa, mulato,
rosapara, sunami, ocoyomi and dekúba; the Tepecano sometimes substitute
marihuana or rosa maria (_Cannabis sativa_) for peyote in their worship,
and elsewhere other plants are involved.[66] Birds are a recognizable
feature in Mexican peyotism: the Huichol macao, humming-bird and swift
are noted, and the Tarahumari humming-bird, green dove and owl.[67]
Bennett and Zingg on the Tarahumari would as well apply to all Mexican
peyotism:[68]
... the use of peyote resembles an elaborate curing ceremony
rather than a cult. There is nothing to suggest a society
centered around peyote-eating.... The group of peyote-eaters
does not involve any exclusiveness, requirements, or ritual
pertaining to individuals. The peyote ceremonies are not given
for the pleasure of eating the plant, but to cure some disease.
Properly speaking, then, Mexican peyotism is a tribal affair, centering
around the shaman, on whose shoulders rests the whole tribal welfare
as involved in abundant corn harvests, successful deer-hunting, and
success in war (which he may prognosticate).[69] Shamanistic curing is
conspicuous in both Huichol and Tarahumari peyotism. Beals,[70] writing
of northern Mexico says that
the degree of shamanistic influence apparent at present is
greater than at some time in the past.... Possibly the use
of peyote also had some influence in extending and reviving
shamanistic concepts.... Visionary experiences reach their
highest development ordinarily in religions of the shamanistic
type.
These remarks go far toward explaining the differential diffusion of
peyotism. Peyote never penetrated the Yuman Southwest, perhaps because
the _dream_ performed the psychological function of the peyote vision
(which, moreover, was not very significant in Mexico). Again, the
ritual use of peyote failed to penetrate the Pueblo Southwest or the
Aztec, both strongholds of priestly religion; perhaps the stereotyped
institutional rituals of these regions stifled such orgiastic individual
emotional experiences as peyote is calculated to induce. On the other
hand, peyotism entered the shamanistic Southwest (the Mescalero) and one
Pueblo, Taos, where the kachina cult was weak, and once it reached the
individualistic vision-valuing Plains, it fairly ran riot.