[1] Rouhier (_Monographie_, 91, n. 1) argues immense antiquity
for peyotism, _circa_ 300 years B.C., among the Chichimeca on
quasi-historical grounds. Our knowledge of peyote from Spanish documents
goes back to the sixteenth century in Mexico. A manuscript in the
Library of Congress reports the trial of a Taos Indian, February 3-8,
1719, for having “taken peyote and disturbed the town” (cf. Twitchell,
_Spanish Archives_, 2:188). See Bandelier, _Manuscript_; Mooney,
_Tarumari-Guayachic_.
[2] Adapted from Lewin, _Phantastica_, 96, and Nicolás de León in
Brinton, _Nagualism_, 6.
[3] Hernandez, _De Historia Plantarum_, 3:70.
[4] Arlegui, _Crónica_, 2:154-55 in Urbina, _El Peyote y el Ololiuhqui_,
26.
[5] Prieto, _Historia y Estadistica_, 123-24, in Mooney, _Peyote
Notebook_.
[6] Alarcón, _Tratado de los supersticiones_, 195.
[7] Lindquist, _The Red Man_, 70-71, is in error in stating that the Zuñi
use peyote for religious purposes; moreover the document of 1720 cited
refers to Taos, not Zuñi. Mr. An-che Li assures me that the Zuñi lack
peyote even today. Lindquist has evidently confused peyote with datura;
see for example Safford, _Narcotic Plants_, 405, 406. Still other plants,
e.g., datura, cohoba snuff, coca, yahé, aya-huasca, etc., were used in
Middle America as prophetic aids; see for example Safford, _op. cit._,
393; Gayton, _Narcotic Plant Datura_.
[8] Bennett and Zingg (_The Tarahumara_, 135) write that “in a culture
where animals are thought to talk and cattle are supposed to warn their
masters of impending drought or plague, it is not surprising that plants
also are imbued with personality and harmful or helpful attributes.
The small ball of cacti is especially revered by the Tarahumara.” Some
_Mammillaria_ spp. have a striking resemblance to a head of hair; one
figured in Higgins with flowing white “hair” is called “Old Man Cactus”;
again, natives have an intense fear of even touching these plants—an
attitude recalling the Pima belief that even one drop of Apache blood
falling on a person would make him ill (Hrdlička, _Physiological and
Medical Observations_, 243). In this connection it is interesting to note
that Spier has collected evidence bearing on the magical use of enemies’
scalps. The magical malevolence of the enemy or his scalp is cited
(_Warfare_) for the Maricopa, Yuman and Piman groups, Navaho, Jicarilla,
and Pueblo. The Yumans and Pimans required stringent purification from
contact with the enemy or his scalp; the Pimans, again, along with
the Navaho and Pueblos turned this power to account in curing and
rain-bringing. Spier states that for the Pima-Papago the scalp is turned
into an ally against the enemy, and made a specific prophylactic against
such enemy-engendered dangers as paralysis, swooning at the sight of
blood or a violent death; the Maricopa, indeed, convert a scalp into one
of themselves, much as a captive is ceremonially converted and purified.
Further still, according to Spier, the Maricopa and Yumans received
prophetic foreknowledge of the enemy from these scalps, which therefore
they carried with them to war. Still more strikingly, scalps are thought
to laugh and cry and babble incessantly, much as the noisily talkative
peyote plant is supposed to do.
[9] Lumholtz, _Tarahumari Dances_, 452; also _Unknown Mexico_, 1:372-74.
[10] Spier (_Warfare_) writes that “Clairvoyance on the part of the
shaman who accompanied a war party is noted for Maricopa, Yuma, Pima,
and Papago [as well as] in the Plains and Plateau.” Zuñi war chiefs, he
adds, sought sound-omens on the eve of setting out on the war-path. In
this last connection the detailed similarities in attitude and conduct of
war-expeditions, peyote-pilgrimages, and salt-gathering expeditions in
Mexico and the Southwest should not be overlooked. (The Huichol shooting
of the peyote plant, however, is a hunting rather than a war symbolism,
that of hunting the hikuli-deer of the peyote origin legend.) Information
on the Comanche horse-raid is from E. A. Hoebel; unfortunately the
Government took most of these peyote-given horses back again.
In the 1850’s the only Kiowa who ate peyote was Big Horse. When he
wished to know the whereabouts of an absent war party he would take a
drum and a rattle into a tipi, saying “gʸägūṇboṇta” (I am going to look
for medicine), eating peyote and afterward telling what he had seen;
sometimes he made the sound of an eagle, the bird that flies high above
the earth and sees afar.
C. W., president of the Kickapoo Native American Church, often has
prophetic peyote visions; Kishkaton says they are of “Judgment Day” when
the “new world” will come, and makes them a proselytizing argument for
peyote. The debt to earlier Kickapoo prophets is obvious. A specific
Caddo prophecy among the visions collected would have prevented a serious
industrial accident if it had been properly interpreted.
[11] In the Plains the “father peyote” is often carried as a fetish.
Kroeber (_Arapaho_, 406) cites a typical case: “The pouches used to
contain the peyote plant have room for only one of the disks, which
is usually carried more or less as a personal amulet, in addition to
being the center of worship during ceremonies. A circular area of
bead-work covering the front of the pouch itself, is said to represent
the appearance of a peyote-plant while being worshipped. In the center
a cross of red beads represents the morning star. Around the edge of
this circular bead-work are eight small triangular figures, which denote
the vomitings deposited by the ring of worshippers around the inside of
the tent in the course of the night. The yellow fringe around the pouch
represents the sun’s rays.”
War Eagle, Delaware (Speck, _Delaware Peyote Symbolism_) told of a
man gassed in the World War whom peyote cured after his case had been
pronounced hopeless. Quanah Parker, the famous Comanche chief, used to
carry a peyote on his chest as protection in battle. A Ponca story tells
of J. W. and his wife returning home as a cyclone was coming up; when
they finally arrived the house was destroyed, but in an undisturbed
drawer they found four articles still intact: a “peyote chief,” a bag of
peyotes, a Bible, and a peyote drumstick.
[12] Sahagún, _Historia general_, 3:241; _Histoire générale_, 737.
Lumholtz (_Unknown Mexico_, 2:354) adds marihuana to the list of plants
which protect against witchcraft injury: the doctor comes on a Tuesday,
Thursday or Friday, reverses the ill person’s sandals, shirt and drawers,
recites the credo backwards to summon the owl, and burns a heap of
marihuana and old rags in the house. Many persons also carry marihuana in
their girdles as a protection against sorcery. The Cocopa and Yuma uses
of an unidentified plant (awimimedje) to offset fatigue and give luck
suggests peyote (Gifford, _Cocopa_, 268).
[13] De la Serna, in Safford, _An Aztec Narcotic_, 390; Arlegui in
Urbina, _El Peyote y el Ololiuhqui_, 26; Arias, in Urbina, _loc. cit._
[14] See the modern Tepecano votive bowl altar used with peyote or
marihuana (Lumholtz, _Unknown Mexico_, 2:124-25).
[15] Lumholtz, _op. cit._, 1:284-85. The Wichita use the “mescal bean”
in racing, and the Kiowa as a prophylactic against stepping on menstrual
blood. Peyote is associated with racing in Mexico by the Huichol,
Tamaulipecans, and Tarahumari (Lumholtz, _Unknown Mexico_, 2:49-50;
Prieto, _Historia y Estadistica_, 123-24; Lumholtz, _op. cit._, 1:372;
Bennett and Zingg, _Tarahumara_, 136-37, 295, 338).
[16] A Wichita leader envisioned a flag three months before being drafted
into the army; the fetish-peyote he carried over-seas miraculously
escaped confiscation during an inspection and disinfection of clothing,
and because of it he was only slightly wounded in battle. One meeting
I attended was in performance of a vow if the Bonus legislation then
pending would pass. This same leader prophetically dreamt of how peyote
would protect him on a pilgrimage to Mexico and aid him through the
customs with a supply of plants, and all happened as predicted.
The Tarahumari dare not touch the dekúba (datura) plant lest they go
crazy or die; this presents a problem since the plants are common in
their winter caves. The peyote shaman, however, armed with the more
powerful plant uproots the datura with impunity. Peyote is the only cure
for the otherwise fatal disease which comes from touching dekúba (Bennett
and Zingg, _op. cit._, 138, 294).
[17] Hoebel, _Comanche Field Notes_; Voegelin, _Shawnee Field Notes_. The
Iowa Red Bean medicine bundle was used for war, horse stealing, hunting
and horse racing (Skinner, _Ethnology of the Ioway Indians_, 245-47,
_Societies of the Iowa_, 718-19). A similar mescal war bundle and cult
was present among the neighboring and related Oto. The Red Medicine
bundles of the Pawnee contained mescal beans likewise; indeed the Pawnee
are thought to be the origin of the Iowa bundle and associated war-dance.
The Pawnee “kill” the beans by breaking and stirring them in a large
kettle, drinking the concoction toward morning until they vomit, to
“clean out” the body. There is an unmistakable similarity to the “black
drink” ritual vomiting here (see Appendix 4).
[18] Mulato, sunami, and rosapara cacti, however, protect against Apache
machinations; Mooney (_Tarumari-Guayachic_) cites a Chalája arroyo near
Conaguchi (from chärä or chälä, “squirrel,” the epithet of witches)
where witches were formerly burned; cf. the use of the squirrel-fetish
in the Tarahumari peyote ritual. In Tamaulipas intertribal peace was
so precarious that peyote mitotes were commonly held in remote and
inaccessible intermediate mountain regions; the recital of war deeds was
sometimes part of the rite (Prieto, in Mooney, _Tarumari-Guayachic_).
De la Serna (in Safford, _An Aztec Narcotic_, 310) describes the use
of teo-nanacatl in witching. For Tarahumari witching with hikuli see
Lumholtz, _Unknown Mexico_, 1:314, 323-24, 371-72.
[19] A favorite diversion of witches to weaken the leader was to make his
assistants vomit (Opler, _The Influence of Aboriginal Pattern_). My Kiowa
companion vomited in a Ponca meeting, the first he had ever attended
in that tribe. He attributed it to their unfriendly feeling and felt
considerably relieved when we visited next morning a meeting held by old
friends among the Oto; but he himself had once witched a Comanche in a
meeting (_Autobiography of a Kiowa Indian_). Tonkawa data is from Opler,
_Autobiography of a Chiricahua Apache_. The exploits of the Kiowa witch
Tonakat have already been mentioned. The Comanche “used it in the old
times, but not rightly; the medicine men used it for sorcery, so people
got scared and stopped using it” (Hoebel, _Comanche Field Notes_). Among
the Cheyenne, Flacco and Cloud Chief strongly opposed the introduction
of peyote; the former said “it was used to witch people and make them
crazy.” The Northern Cheyenne (Hoebel, _Field Notes_) and Lipan (Opler,
_The Use of Peyote_) and Winnebago “fear states” may have a physiological
basis.
Mrs. Voegelin (_Shawnee Field Notes_) quotes an informant: “Wilson showed
them how to swallow mescal beads.... N. S. didn’t go; she was afraid of
them. The Delaware had it too; she never wanted to go look. John Wilson
also taught them how to shoot a person with red beads two inches long;
the person would fall down, hard; then John Wilson doctored on them with
medicine. [Several Shawnee] crept up in the grass when the Quapaws were
holding a Ghost Dance once, at night. S’s wife got shot.... Finally some
one spoke to John Wilson, ‘You men, you abuse the women.’ An old Peoria
woman who went all the time, and swallowed those red beads—she was kind
of crazy—told Wilson that. The agent finally stopped it.... When they
were shot, John Wilson used peyote to bring them back.”
[20] Alegre, _Historia de la Compañía_, 2:219-20; Prieto, _Historia y
Estadistica_, 131. It is not proven that peyote applied externally has
an anaesthetic or anodyne action (the Zacatecan use in the childbirth
ceremony is internal); but natives recognize the ability of peyote to
induce a stuporous state. The Aztec (Gerste, _Notes sur le médicine_,
51) used peyote to stupify sacrificial victims. But peyote does not
cause sleepiness, and the following Maratine Indian battle song (in
Prieto, _op. cit._, 119-20; Mooney, _Peyote Notebook_) should perhaps be
translated “become stuporous:” “The women and ourselves shouting with
pleasure, Shall drink peyote and shall fall asleep.” For Opata data see
Ensayo, in Mooney, _Tarumari-Guayachic_; for Lipan see Opler, _The Use of
Peyote_.
[21] Parsons, _Taos Pueblo_, 59; Flores, in Urbina, _El Peyote y el
Ololiuhqui_, 26; Rouhier (_Monographie_, 96) adds the Caxcane use “for
swellings and spasms”; Hernandez, _De Historia Plantarum_, 3:70; Safford,
_An Aztec Narcotic_, 295; Bennett and Zingg, _The Tarahumara_, 294;
Hrdlička, _Physiological and Medical Observations_, 173, 242, 244, 250,
251; Lumholtz, _The Huichol_, 9; _Unknown Mexico_, 2:241-42.
[22] Would pupil-dilation from peyote cause temporary “cures” satisfying
the uncritical?
[23] Radin, _Crashing Thunder_, 183, 196; Mooney, _The Mescal Plant_, 9.
Lumholtz (_Unknown Mexico_, 2:157) himself confidently prescribed peyote
for a scorpion-sting.
[24] Beals, _Comparative Ethnology_, 131 (Acaxee); Rouhier,
_Monographie_, 12, fn. 3 (Tlaxcala). The Kiowa witch Tonakat fixed a
fireplace in the form of a turtle, the source of his power, and used
a meeting once for shamanistic display, being shot with a cartridge
and remaining unharmed, etc. A Caddo-Delaware tells of a famous Kiowa
doctor who used similar tricks in doctoring a woman. He held a black
handkerchief over her to see the location of the disease, dipped a
feather in water, cut the skin and removed two 1½″ bugs, the wound
healing immediately. Both popped when thrown into the fire, thus
prognosticating her recovery from a twenty years’ illness. Wild Horse
(Caddo-Delaware) said doctors did “wizard sleight-of-hand tricks” in
meetings; “some Indians can make you believe you see things.” Some
Tonkawa who visited the Kiowa about 1890 performed tricks in meeting like
eating fire (Mooney, _Peyote Notebook_).
[25] Lumholtz, _Unknown Mexico_, 2:241-42.
[26] The suppression of peyote was sought under an act of Jan. 30, 1897
(29 Stat. 506), Sect. 6 of the Food and Drugs Act of June 30, 1906 (34
Stat. 768-72), Sect. 11 of the same act, and Service and Regulatory
Announcement No. 13, Dept. of Agriculture, Bureau of Chemistry (issued
May 3, 1915)—all without success. Specific Federal anti-peyote bills
were next attempted: Senate 1862 (65th Congress 1st Sess. Apr. 17,
1917), House of Representatives 10669 (64th Congress 1st Sess.), House
of Representatives 4999 (65th Congress 1st Sess. June 12, 1917), House
of Representatives 2614 (65th Congress 2nd Sess. May 13, 1918-Oct. 7,
1918). These all failed of passing. An anti-peyote proviso attached as
a rider to Appropriations bill House of Representatives 8696 of March
28, 1918 was deleted before passage, under pressure from a powerful and
alert Indian lobby. Later bills were House of Representatives 398 (66th
Congress 1st Sess.), House of Representatives 2071 (about March 29,
1924), House of Representatives 5057 (not passed by Senate, but amended
as:) House of Representatives 5078 (about Jan. 24, 1924, 68th Congress
1st Sess.)—all defeated. The Senate bill 1399 of Feb. 8, 1937 is pending
at the present writing.
State laws against peyote have been more successful. The Oklahoma law of
March 11, 1899 was automatically repealed by omission in the codification
of the state laws; the Darnell bill of 1927 was defeated April 13, 1927.
The following states have anti-peyote laws: Colorado (before 1923),
Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Montana (by 1925), Nebraska, Nevada (by 1918), New
Mexico, North Dakota (before 1923), South Dakota, Utah (before 1918), and
Wyoming (1929). The Native American Church is incorporated in Oklahoma
and Montana, however, under state charters.
[27] The trip is made after the rainy season and the corn harvest
(Lumholtz, _Unknown Mexico_, 2:127); the roasting of corn is of equal
ritual importance with the hikuli-harvest and the deer-hunt: the three,
indeed, deer, corn and peyote are symbolically the same (Lumholtz _op.
cit._, 2:156, 279).
[28] Lumholtz, _Unknown Mexico_, 2:82, 126-27, 141, 157, 271, 272;
_Handbook of the American Indians_, 1:576-77; Klineberg, _Notes on the
Huichol_, 449. For the gourd-symbolism see also Lumholtz, _op. cit_.,
2:57-58, 129, 220; for the arrows, _Handbook of the American Indians_,
2:663.
[29] Cf. the universal corn shuck cigarette of Plains peyotism (a
region of deep-rooted pipe ceremonialism), a remarkable case of
culture-continuity.
[30] Lumholtz, _Unknown Mexico_, 2:129-35.
[31] Lumholtz, _The Huichol_, 8; _Unknown Mexico_, 2:129-32, 141, 277-78;
for the use of the water see 2:57-58, 220.
[32] Cf. the Plains mode of preparing the meat, though the memory of the
meaning of this feature (like the corn shuck cigarette and ritual parched
corn) is long since gone.
[33] Lumholtz, _Unknown Mexico_, 2:132-35, 153, 156, 189, 271. The triple
corn-deer-peyote symbolism is completed when the women grind peyote on a
metate.
[34] Lumholtz, _Unknown Mexico_, 2:54, 272, 273-74. Cf. the Plains
“fire-stick” and fire-arrangement.
[35] Lumholtz, _Unknown Mexico_, 2:29-31, 142-44, 149-50.
[36] Spanish friars came in after 1722, but Huichol peyotism is almost
wholly free of Christian beliefs (_Handbook of the American Indians_,
1:576-77). Even the “baptism” rite is probably native.
[37] Klineberg (_Notes on the Huichol_, 449) mentions special dances led
by “angels” the next day—a boy and a girl dressed in their finest. It is
not clear if this refers to the dance leaders or to the ceremonial “race
for life” with the eating of cake-animals and spraying of the runners
by the elders. But elsewhere Lumholtz describes a dance with carved
bamboo serpent-sticks, deer-tails on short sticks, and whiskbroom “combs”
(_Unknown Mexico_ 2:49-50).
[38] Lumholtz, _Unknown Mexico_, 2:272, 274-75.
[39] But the whole peyote ritual might be divided into (1) the trip
for hikuli, (2) the deer hunt, and (3) the roasting of corn, though
peyote-deer-corn are symbolically identical.
[40] Lumholtz, _Unknown Mexico_, 2:279. Tamaulipecan peyotism is
similarly a hunting and first-fruits ceremony.
[41] “The idea of the antlers being arrows readily occurred to the
Huichol, since they are the animal’s weapon of attack and defence”
(Lumholtz, _Symbolism of the Huichol_, 69).
[42] Lumholtz, _Unknown Mexico_, 2:7-8, 56, 172-73, 201-203; _Handbook of
the American Indians_, 1:663b; _Symbolism of the Huichol_, 42, 66, 71,
174; _The Huichol_, 10.
[43] Bits of deer meat, corn-tamales and strung peyote-plants are treated
with exactly equivalent ritual. In the peyote dance serpent-sticks are
thrust into the air (like prayer sticks, praying for rain?), and small
whisks made of materials brought from the hikuli-country represent
deer-tails. In the origin legend, peyote first arose in the tracks of
a gigantic deer; indeed, when the gods first used peyote they ground
deer-antlers on a metate with water to make an intoxicant, just as
peyote is ground to make “tea” and corn to make tesvino. The fire is
built in a special way suggesting deer-antlers or the god-chairs. Arrows
as definitely symbolize prayer as the prayer sticks of the Southwest.
The poker or fire-arrow of Grandfather Fire is smeared with blood and
decorated with plumes; it is his “pillow” and the rest of the sticks
are his “chair.” (One “appearance” of the god is a heart, modelled of
the paste of the sacred wáve seed toasted and ground like corn, and
renewed in the god-house every five years.) Facial paintings of the
Huichol are called úra, “spark,” being made of a yellow root dug in
the peyote country when the hikuli is gathered; yellow particularly
symbolizes the fire gods, of whom there are two. Tatévali, “Grandfather
Fire,” is the god of prophesying and curing shamans whose birds are
the macao, royal eagle, cardinal bird, etc. The other, Tatótsi Mára
Kwári, “Greatgrandfather Deer-tail,” is the god of singing-shamans,
whose bird is the white-tailed hawk. Their relationship is peculiar:
Greatgrandfather Deer-tail, the symbol of fertility, is the son of
Grandfather Fire, from whose plumes he sprang. Lumholtz (_Symbolism of
the Huichol_, 10-11) explains the difficulty by indicating that the
former represents a spark, the latter a fire fed by wood.
[44] Bennett and Zingg, _The Tarahumara_, ix, 136, 291-92; Mooney,
_Tarumari-Guayachic_; Lumholtz, _Tarahumari Dances_, 453; _Unknown
Mexico_, 1:362.
[45] Bennett and Zingg, _op. cit._, 292; Lumholtz, _Unknown Mexico_,
1:363. The rasp is not used in the fiesta on returning from the trip, but
in later ones.
[46] Lumholtz, _Unknown Mexico_, 1:171-72, 343-44, 363-64. The shaman’s
women assistants are called rokoro, “stamens”; he is the pistil—a
botanically erroneous symbolism, however.
[47] The Tarahumari rasp is definitely associated with peyotism,
indicating (Bennett and Zingg, _The Tarahumara_, 71) a Huichol
provenience; but they list rasps for the Cora, Mayo, Pima (“rain
sticks”), Hopi (in the kachina dance) and N. Paiute (to charm antelope
into a corral). The rasp is not exclusively Uto-Aztecan however;
it occurs for the Wichita, Hidatsa, Salinan, and archaeologically
in Illinois. Tarahumari Brazil-wood rasps are brought from the
hikuli-country.
[48] Lumholtz, _Unknown Mexico_, 1:313, 363-66; Bennett and Zingg, _op.
cit._, 293; Mooney, _Tarumari-Guayachic_.
[49] Lumholtz, _Unknown Mexico_, 1:367-69, 371; Bennett and Zingg, _The
Tarahumara_, 293. Near Eagle Pass a folk-Catholic saint is El Santo Niño
de Jesús Peyotes, whose attributes are a staff, gourd, feathered hat and
basket similar to but distinct from El Santo Niño de Atoche. In Mexican
legend he is a little boy; his statue is in the cathedral or cathedral
square at Rosales, Mexico. Another attribute is said to be the crescent
moon.
[50] Lumholtz, _Unknown Mexico_, 1:292-93, 314, 344, 347-48, 371-72, 384;
Bennett and Zingg, _The Tarahumara_, 294. The ceremony is called napítshi
nawlíruga, “moving (dancing) around the fire” (Lumholtz, _Unknown
Mexico_, 1:364). In the dry season the Tarahumari dance the yumari
almost nightly to the Morning Star, and sacrifice tesvino to the sun; a
man is often deputed to do the dance alone while the others work in the
fields, to bring rain (Lumholtz, _op. cit._, 1:352). The Morning Star
is important in the Cora rite too (Lumholtz, _op. cit._, 1:344; Preuss,
_Nayarit-Expedition_, _passim_) as well as figuring in Plains peyotism,
though somewhat vaguely.
[51] Lumholtz, _Unknown Mexico_, 1:357-58, 444; Bennett and Zingg, _The
Tarahumara_, 360, 366-67, 379, 383.
[52] Beals, _Comparative Ethnology_, 131. He adds, though, that “This
[use] may also be aboriginal, and very probably dates back to the
separation of the Huichol from their peyote-using relatives, the
Guachachiles.” He cites Thomas and Swanton (_Indian Languages_, 22) but
evidence is meagre. For the Cora we have Ortega (in Safford, _An Aztec
Narcotic_, 295, and _Narcotic Plants_, 402): “Close to the musician was
seated the leader of the singing whose business it was to mark the time.
Each of these had his assistants to take his place when he should become
fatigued.... They began forming as large a circle as could occupy the
space of ground that had been swept off for this purpose. One after the
other went dancing in a ring or marking time with their feet, keeping
in the middle the musician and the choirmaster whom they invited, and
singing in the same unmusical tone that he set them. They would dance all
night from five o’clock in the evening to seven o’clock in the morning,
without stopping or leaving the circle. When the dance was ended all
stood who could hold themselves on their feet; for the majority from the
peyote and the wine which they drank were unable to utilize their legs or
hold themselves upright.”
[53] Prieto, _Historia y Estadistica_, 123-24.
[54] Beals, _Comparative Ethnology_, 131.
[55] Sahagún, _Historia general_, 3:241 (Chichimeca); Prieto, _Historia
y Estadistica_, 119-20, cites a Maratine Indian (Tamaulipecan) peyote
song referring to war. Arlegui, in Urbina, _El Peyote y el Ololiuhqui_,
26; see also Rouhier, _op. cit._, 12, note 3, 96, 331, note 3; Alegre, in
Urbina, _op. cit._, 26; Preuss, _Die Nayarit-Expedition_, 39. The Morning
Star is the principal Cora god (Lumholtz, _Unknown Mexico_, 1:511, see
also _Handbook of the American Indians_, 1:348a). Elder Brother among
the Huichol is the god of wind and hikuli (Lumholtz, _Symbolism of
the Huichol_, 42). The Tarahumari dance yumari for the Morning Star
(Lumholtz, _Unknown Mexico_, 1:344). In the Plains the drum-lacing
signifies the Morning Star. Spier (_Yuman Tribes_, 165) writes: “[The
battle leader’s] song first described the morning star, ‘big star,’
which in some unidentified way is connected with war. Just what was his
function in battle was not ascertained.” He also dreamed he saw cacti
fighting like men.
[56] Mooney, _Tarumari-Guayachic_; Sahagún, _Historia general_, 3:118;
Ortega, _Historia del Nayarit_, 22-23; Lumholtz, _Unknown Mexico_,
1:367-68, 2:274-75; Prieto, _Historia y Estadistica_, 123-24.
[57] Racing (Tarahumari, Huichol, Tamaulipas, Acaxee): Lumholtz, _Unknown
Mexico_, 1:284-85, 2:49-50; Prieto, _Historia y Estadistica_, 123-24;
Beals, _The Acaxee_, 8.
[58] Beals (_Comparative Ethnology_, 127, 141, 211-12) lists it for
Southern Mexico, Jalisco-Tepic, Southwest.
[59] Lumholtz, _Unknown Mexico_, 1:362, 2:54; Bennett and Zingg,
_The Tarahumara_, 295. See also Wissler, _The American Indian_, 213;
_Handbook of the American Indians_, 1:604b. In the Plains some tribes
differentiated twigs and leaves as male and female.
[60] The Tarahumari feast for the moon involves smoking to make clouds
(Lumholtz, _Unknown Mexico_, 2:130; _Tarahumari Dances_, 441). The
Huichol carry “tamale” cigarettes in their gourds and offer them to
Grandfather Fire.
[61] Bennett and Zingg, _The Tarahumara_, 67; Beals, _Aboriginal
Survivals_, 32; Russell, _The Pima_, 168; Spier, _Havasupai Ethnography_,
272; Lumholtz, _Unknown Mexico_, 1:313; Opler, _The Influence of
Aboriginal Pattern_, _The Use of Peyote_; Sayles, _An Archaeological
Survey_, Table 2; Oliver, in Gatschet, _The Karankawa Indians_, 18;
Gatschet, in Swadesh, _Chitamacha Texts_; Kroeber, _The Seri_, 14, 42;
Roberts, _Musical Areas_, 21; Paz, _Koasati Field Notes_; Bartram,
_Travels_, 502; Speck, _Yuchi_, 61.
[62] Tarahumari officials are called igúsuame, “stick-bearers” (Bennett
and Zingg, _op. cit._, 375-76) but this may be an Hispanicism. However,
Aztec merchants (Sahagún) carried staffs. But so far as the peyote
ritual is concerned, the staff is not mentioned for the Cora-Huichol or
Tarahumari; and the various names for the peyote staff in the Plains
suggests either an indigenous or a Southwestern, not a Mexican, origin.
[63] Bennett and Zingg, _The Tarahumari_, 71, 293-94; Lumholtz, _Unknown
Mexico_, 1:366-67. The Tarahumari hunter used a notched deer-bone rasp.
The Cora, Mayo, and Pima, Hopi and Northern Paiute suggest a general
Uto-Aztecan occurrence of the trait, but the rasp, is also Wichita,
Hidatsa.
[64] Prieto, _Historia y Estadistica_, 123-24. See the Plains section for
discussion of drums.
[65] A little white flower, tōtó, of the wet corn-producing season
symbolizes corn for the Huichol and is a prayer for it, being plastered
on women’s cheeks, woven in girdles, etc. (Lumholtz, _Unknown Mexico_,
229-30). The Tamaulipecan rite celebrates the harvest and deer-hunting as
well as war; the Tepehuane all-night rite with a mimicry of deer-hunting
ends with a feast on the first “toasted corn” of the season (Lumholtz,
1:479). Acaxee corn toasted on the ear was the usual food on war-parties
(Beals, 10). Concerning the standardized parched-corn in sugar-water of
the Plains, note that the Aztec made offerings of toasted corn (sometimes
with honey), and to the culture-hero Opuchtli offered mumuchtli “a sort
of corn which when toasted opens up and shows the white marrow [popcorn]
forming a very white flower. They said this represented hail, which is
attributed to the water gods.” (Sahagún, _A History of Ancient Mexico_,
1:36, 40, 87.)
[66] Bennett and Zingg, _The Tarahumara_, 138, 295; Lumholtz, _Unknown
Mexico_, 1:357-58 (wherein all but the last named are cacti), 2:124-25
(Tepecano). The accepted etymology of teo-nanacatl, “divine mushroom,”
suggests the same attitude; in the Antilles “among the most prominent
of the plants worshipped ... [are] mushrooms, pines, opuntias, zapos,
and zeybas.” (Rafinesque, cited in Bourke, _Scatological Rites_, 91; but
Rafinesque is an undependable authority). The Cherokee called casine
yapon (the “black drink”) “the beloved tree” (Bartram, _Travels_, 357).
It is also said that in Virginia toadstools were an object of worship
because of their mysterious growth (Bourke, _ibid._). In Peru coca was
looked on with veneration and suppliants must approach priests only with
some in their mouths. Compare the use and attitudes toward tobacco,
mescal beans, datura, guarana paste, cohoba, chocolate (_Theobroma
cacao_), aya-huasca, yahé, etc.
[67] Lumholtz, _Unknown Mexico_, 2:172-73, 207, 263 ff. The Huichol had
hikuli-shields; curiously, Crow-Neck (Kiowa) about 1860 made a peyote
shield according to a vision he had at Mescalero, but he threw it away
when he was captured on his first fight in Mexico. The Kiowa, however,
had heraldic shield-societies before peyote, of which this is probably
an aberrant example. (For the bird and arrow equation see Spier, _Yuman
Tribes_, 331, Lumholtz, _op. cit._, 2:201-202.) See also Lumholtz, _op.
cit._, 1:313, 323-24, 371-72; _Tarahumari Dances_, 452.
[68] Bennett and Zingg, _The Tarahumari_, 294.
[69] Lumholtz, _Unknown Mexico_, 1:311, writes: “Without his shaman the
Tarahumare would feel lost, both in this life and after death. The shaman
is his priest and physician. He performs all the ceremonies and conducts
all the dances and feasts by which the gods are propitiated and evil is
averted, doing all the singing, praying, and sacrificing. By this means,
and by instructing the people what to do to make it rain, and secure
other benefits, he maintains good terms for them with their deities, who
are jealous of man and bear him ill-will. He is also on the alert to
keep those under his care from sorcery, illness, and other evil that may
befall them ... the Tarahumare ... keeps his doctor busy curing him, not
only to make his body strong to resist illness, but chiefly to ward off
sorcery, the main source of trouble in the Indian’s life.”
[70] Beals, _Comparative Ethnology_, 128.
[71] This entire section is summarized from data collected by M. E.
Opler. I gratefully acknowledge the courtesy and generosity of his
lending me the article _The Influence of Aboriginal Pattern_ before
publication, as well as _The Autobiography of a Chiricahua Apache_,
and unpublished notes on Lipan, Tonkawa and Carrizo peyotism; it would
be difficult to establish Mexican-Plains continuities without these
invaluable data and the warm coöperation of Dr. Opler.
[72] The Mescalero are listed neither in Shonle (_Peyote: The Giver of
Visions_, 53-75) nor in Newberne and Burke, _Peyote_. Mescalero peyotism,
like Tarahumari, is on the decline.
[73] The Lipan make a smoke and pray when the first plant is found; they
are hard to find unless one eats one, then “a noise like the wind” comes,
and one by one the plants appear “just like stars.” Only the tops are cut
off.
[74] Though this was general in Mescalero ceremonialism, they also
controlled the weather thus, found lost objects, located the enemy,
etc.; a Chiricahua prayed for health, in the name of Yuan and Child of
the Water. The Lipan formerly did not use it for doctoring apparently.
The Tonkawa, according to Mooney, performed shamanistic tricks in
peyote meetings; and a Carrizo chief, for example, filled the tipi once
with down-feathers blown from his mouth, then sucked them all in save
one which he gave to a Lipan visitor. Others made a bear, turtle, and
buffalo, etc., appear.
[75] The Lipan wash themselves with yucca or soapweed and perfume
themselves with mint, and use the same kind of sage in meetings as they
wear in their hats against lightning. The Tonkawa wore G-string, leggings
and blanket, and preferably long hair and face paint; native perfumes
were proper but white men’s were forbidden. The Carrizo entered barefoot,
wearing only a G-string. Some Lipan fasted the day before.
[76] The Lipan leader “is supposed to stop all arguments in there; he has
to watch all the men.” Unlike the Mescalero, the Lipan staff and gourd
were passed around clockwise (both preceding the drum); the retention of
these by the leader is probably an aspect of his special authority among
the Mescalero, since the Lipan lacked the rasp, retained by the leader,
which might have been transmitted from Mexico. The Tonkawa sometimes used
a lard-can drum covered with buckskin, and passed the rattle (aberrantly)
after it; the leader never drummed.
[77] Some shamans trace a cross of pollen on the chief peyote. The
Tonkawa use the largest one they can find, put some red paint on the top,
and surround it with smaller buttons on a fine buckskin; they claimed to
be able to see far off with the aid of peyote and to detect witchcraft.
Some Lipan like the Mescalero put peyote buttons in a circle around the
fire pit and the chief peyote (cf. the Comanche placing of them in a sage
horseshoe west of the altar).
[78] The Lipan fire-tender, like the Carrizo and some Mexican groups,
made simply a fire-pit, with no crescent altar; this form originated with
the Mescalero or in northwestern Mexico, not around the lower Rio Grande.
The Carrizo, like the Tamaulipecan, held the ceremony in the open.
[79] The Lipan used peyote green or dry or pounded up in a wooden bowl,
which was passed like the drum from the southeast. The Carrizo made a
peyote “tea” (compare the neighboring Karankawa “black drink”). The
Tonkawa used a flat basket. Among the Mescalero (also Lipan and Kiowa),
“Care was taken to keep the ‘fuzz’ from the top of the peyote button from
coming in contact with the eye, for it was thought to cause blindness.”
[80] Not all Mescalero leaders do this; oak-leaf cigarettes are usually
used but one leader has a red stone Sioux pipe, which is passed
clockwise. The Lipan smoke oak-leaf or corn husk cigarettes at the
beginning and at the end. Their eagle wing-bone whistle in peyote is
recent, and not all Mescalero leaders use it.
[81] The Carrizo on each side of the door had a woman wearing a red
blanket; the one at the south had hers fastened with a red flicker
feather, the other with a woodpecker. This non-exclusion of women is
Mexican. But the Lipan allow no women around; they may not even erect the
peyote-tipi. The Tonkawa originally allowed no women in peyote meetings;
but doctoring gradually broke down this restriction.
[82] “The virulence of these rivalries and attempts to harm others at
peyote meetings led to the development of a number of protective measures
and safeguards.” For these see Opler, _The Influence of Aboriginal
Pattern_.
[83] In the old shamanistic curing, the shaman was the performer and the
others merely onlookers, but in peyotism the inevitable physiological
effects of the drug made all present potential receivers of power, and
shamanistic display and rivalry was correspondingly increased. This had
not wholly disappeared even in early Plains peyote-using groups: the
Tonkawa, Lipan, and Kiowa had shamanistic displays of power in peyote
meetings, and we have recorded considerable witchcraft anxiety in early
Kiowa, Comanche, Caddo, and Tonkawa meetings.
[84] The reasons for this are several: a nomadic people presents few
opportunities for the establishing of missions; the Apache were one
of the American Indian groups last subjugated; they are notoriously
suspicious and unfriendly toward innovation, and recognized the alien
origin even of peyotism; and further, the rite they received from Mexico
had few or no Christian elements in it. It might be suggested that the
“baptism” ceremonies in the morning or the ritual breakfast are Christian
in origin; but this is thoroughly doubtful, since it occurs in pre-White
peyotism (e.g., Lipan).
[85] In the Plains, peyotism largely followed the Ghost Dance frustration
of anti-White sentiment and preached conciliation instead; such Christian
elements as were added had a largely propagandist function in this
direction.
[86] Wagner, _Entwicklung und Verbreitung_, 74; Shonle, _Peyote: Giver of
Visions_, 55.
[87] As told, this seemed to have reference to the miraculous
proliferation of the Biblical loaves and fishes, but it is sufficiently
similar to aboriginal hunting beliefs.
[88] The Comanche and others usually had a meeting on the spot, eating
green peyote.
[89] The Kiowa now have five Easter meetings, six on New Year’s Day, four
to six on Thanksgiving, and two or three on Armistice Day (by World War
soldiers and sailors). Bert Crow-lance vowed to eat a hundred if all the
Kiowa boys returned safely from the War (but this is an enormous quantity
actually to have eaten). The Kiowa differ from other groups in having
no funeral meetings; mourners commonly abstain for several months from
meetings. Meetings have been held for heyoka-like display. The Comanche
formerly held meetings before a war journey to invoke peyote’s protection
from the enemy, and to prophesy the outcome of the battle.
[90] “A sweatbath was always undergone by warriors preparing for war ...
and perhaps generally, before any serious or hazardous undertaking....
Sweating was important in medical practice for the cure of disease....
Sometimes the friends and relatives of the sick person ... assembled in
the sweathouse, sang and prayed for the patient’s recovery” (_Handbook of
the American Indians_, 2:661b). The peyote meeting and sweating present
many such analogies.
[91] Painting is commonly dictated in visions: a Kiowa saw a red-bird
after a meeting once as a red-blanketed man who told him to use red paint
thereafter. Comanche formerly went in wearing only breech-clout and
“blanket,” being painted white or yellow all over the body. One Comanche
had an all-over body yellow with blue zigzags up the arm and down the
side and leg, with a red zigzag paralleling this (on the outside of
the arm and therefore on the inside of the leg); on each cheek a small
blue-bordered red spot, and a large three-inch red spot on the breast
under the throat. The Tonkawa painted the top of the fetish-plant red
also. Leaders often wear otter skin braid-coverings, and at certain
points in the ritual fur headdresses. Mescal beans as necklaces or on
moccasin- and gourd-fringes are common (the Kiowa wear them on their
moccasins as protection against stepping on menstrual blood). The
“blanket,” or sheet (in the summer), is invariable.
[92] Mooney (_A Kiowa Mescal Rattle_, 64-65) describes a Kiowa gourd with
the Peyote Woman, peyote, moon, ash crescent, and Morning-Star under her
feet heralding her morning approach with water.
[93] The basic rite is practically free from Christian symbolism. Some
call the sage under the fetish a “cross”; some leaders make a cross
under the water-bucket or in the water with feathers at midnight. Mooney
wrote that “many of the mescal eaters wear crucifixes ... the cross
representing the cross of scented leaves ... while Christ is the mescal
goddess.” But all crosses are not necessarily Christian. See Appendix 8.
[94] Older men carry real “feathers,” but younger ones often bring small,
ribbed, commercial, folding ladies’ fans—an interesting compromise. The
Comanche nácihita “resting-stick, to walk,” was formerly a bow, according
to Hoebel, on war-party meetings, while the drum was formerly of wood.
The Lipan formerly used a bow, hit with a stick.
[95] Following a suggestion of Dr. Wissler, I made a special note of this
and found that the ubiquitous satchel is as much a “trait” of the peyote
leader’s paraphernalia as his staff or gourd or feathers.
[96] The Kiowa moon is crescent-shaped, the Comanche horseshoe-shaped—a
significant point in tracing provenience of altars in other tribes. Some
Comanche garland the entire west side of the altar with sage, in which
the fetish rests. In war the Comanche used a shield as an altar. A cement
moon made by a Choctaw adopted by the Kiowa was an innovation much in
disfavor, as was a Seminole altar made among the Caddo; the symbolical
interior of the latter was removed to make a simple crescent. Indeed,
many Caddo are moving away from the John Wilson symbolic cement moon.
[97] Cf. the Huichol “pillow” for Grandfather Fire.
[98] Belo Kozad’s (Kiowa) father peyote had been Quanah Parker’s
(Comanche) and was handed around after the meeting almost as an heirloom.
Mumsika (Comanche) still preserves a famous peyote button of Kutubi’s
(Hoebel). Howard White Wolf (Comanche) has a peyote he addresses as
“older brother” since it had cured him as a baby. Clyde Koko (Kiowa) quit
peyote one Christmas night and gave Charley two father peyotes to take
back to Laredo and plant with smoke and prayer; uncertain, the latter
brought them back to find Koko had completely changed his mind: “I never
made such a mistake in my life. If you’d done that it sure would have
ruined me. I’ve learned a lesson!”
[99] “The neophyte is constantly exhorted not to allow his eyes to
wander, but to keep them fixed upon the sacred mescal in the center of
the circle.” (Mooney, _The Mescal Plant_, 11). Changing the cross-legged
position too often, leaning backward on one elbow or the like to rest is
considered frivolous, indicating lack of seriousness. One may leave the
meeting at any time with permission, but it is best to try to wait till
after midnight, unless there is the emergency of nausea from peyote. In
leaving and entering the leader is always consulted to see if the path
to one’s seat is “clear,” i.e., that no one is eating peyote or smoking;
as smoking or eating peyote is conceptually praying, it is extremely bad
manners to pass between a person doing either and the altar fire, hence
the need for instruction from the leader. This is old Plains etiquette
(_Handbook of the American Indians_, 1:442b). Thus, to avoid his having
to pass before smokers, the brand might be passed backwards to the
fireman; his movements in tending the fire never entail passing before
anyone, and the feather given him by the leader symbolizes delegation
of power to enter or leave as necessary for wood. But no one may pass
between him and his seat while tending the fire.
[100] Corn shucks are standard, but Comanche and Shawnee sometimes use
black-jack oak-leaves (just so the materials are native). Interestingly,
the elbow pipe is never used in the Plains, but at Mescalero a pipe was
used instead of the usual Southwestern cigarette—a case of reverse or
reciprocal borrowing.
[101] There are many individualized modes of eating peyote. Hoebel
describes a Comanche way: chew into a ball, spit into palm of hand, rub
in clockwise circle, swallow bolus. On the war-path one spits in his
hands again and rubs his head and ears, the better to hear. Belo said
he once ate a button when each person sang. Kiowa often make several
clockwise motions of buttons toward the fire before eating, to prevent
nausea, or hold the palms out toward it and rub themselves. One may
request another to chew peyote for him if he has bad teeth or is sick,
and swallow the bolus so prepared. The number of buttons eaten ranges
from four to about thirty.
[102] Mooney (_Miscellaneous Notes_) mentions an odorous root from New
Mexico, but is unclear about its use; cedar incense was universal in the
writer’s experience. The sage may be passed around also; some chew, eat
it.
[103] Cf. the whisk of sage used in sweat-bathing; in view of other
parallels, this otherwise functionless item in the peyote meeting should
not be overlooked.
[104] This is the first of four sets of four songs each, sung at stated
times in the ritual; the others are: Yáhiyano (midnight water song),
Wakahó (daylight song for morning water) and Gayatina (Closing Song). All
are Esikwita (Mescalero); all end with a fast unrhythmical shaking of the
gourd. The two Kiowa groups sęįhoṇ (Peyote Road) and Goihoṇ (Kiowa Road)
differ in that in the former only the initial song of each group is set,
in the latter all songs of all four groups are set.
[105] There are specific and detailed rules about passing the
paraphernalia. Ordinarily, save in the case of the leader and his
assistant at the opening song, etc., the paraphernalia (here the staff)
never move counter-clockwise. The drum always passes inside the staff,
i.e., proximally, the staff at arm’s length in the left hand, the drum
being passed under it with the right, when for any reason this occurs.
The symbolism of this is perhaps obvious. A man may not be the singer
more than once in a round, but he may be successively drummer, singer and
drummer. (Though the staff may not go backward, the drum may, and in this
case A receiving the staff, passes the drum with his right hand under
his outstretched left, from the man on his right to the man on his left,
B. A then sings to B’s drumming; the staff is then passed forward from A
to B, and the drum exchanged or passed backward from B to A, this time A
drumming and B singing. Still going clockwise, the staff may be passed
from B to C, and the drum from A to B, C singing this time and B drumming
a second time.)
[106] At the east door the drum may be passed as stated to the second man
so that the first man south of the door gets a chance to sing (because
the fireman is too far away to drum for him) then an exchange and normal
passing again, staff first. If a person right of the singer is old, sick,
a woman or a visitor, he may request a friend to drum for him of the
leader; the friend moves clockwise and sits by him temporarily. Women
neither drum nor rattle nor sing (but like other participants they tend
to sing softly favorite songs or the universally known set songs). Men
try to make their four songs different from those previously sung, but
favorites may be repeated.
[107] Kutubi (Comanche) in a war-party peyote meeting once visioned that
they would be killed, and wept and upbraided peyote for doing this. H. H.
(Wichita) during a meeting wept with total unrestraint for his brother
and nephew, who had been hurt in an auto accident.
[108] The Kiowa sometimes make a humming-bird of the ashes (a prominent
Kiowa family is called Hummingbird); cf. the Comanche, Oto, Shawnee,
Yuchi and (?) Ute ash-birds.
[109] Peyote Road cultists: one fixed song, three optional; Kiowa Road:
four fixed songs. The words of the standard song are unintelligible. Many
tribes use their own language for these set songs (e.g., one Winnebago
group). The schism in the Kiowa, if such it may be called, is excessively
minor and communicants of one are freely welcomed in the other; though it
purports (probably wrongly) to be the original and more pure rite, the
Kiowa Road (led by Atape) is felt to be an uncalled-for variant.
[110] Mooney (_The Mescal Plant_, 8) writes: “At midnight a vessel of
water is passed around, and each takes a drink and sprinkles a few drops
upon his head.” We believe Mooney has slipped into error here, for this
“baptismal” ceremony comes in the morning when the contents of the drum,
not the bucket, are used. Non-Kiowa data likewise agree on this point.
According to Mooney, the leader drinks first among the Comanche. The
Caddo drink no water at this time: “One must suffer to peyote.” Such
abstemiousness with a thirst-producing substance like peyote suggests
the psychological flavor of the vision quest. Note that Anhalonium means
“without salt.” “If there is suffering, this is the time. That’s the
reason I took a good rest so I could stand it. Many a time I have fallen
over at this time. The hour of the Crucifixion. Everyone is suffering now
... the dark hour” (Simmons, in _Peyote Road_).
[111] “The four whistles at midnight by the leader outside the tipi are
to notify all things in all directions that they were having a meeting
there at the center of the cross ... calling the great power to be with
us while we were drinking so that it could hear our prayers and bless us”
(Hoebel, _Comanche Field Notes_).
[112] Others may be incensed when they reënter too, and everyone holds
out his fan for the blessing. If a communicant is smoking when another
reënters, it is good manners to place the cigarette on the ground
temporarily that he may pass in front of him.
[113] There is a suggestion that this woman, usually the wife of the
sponsor, symbolizes sęįmąyi or “Peyote Woman”; the Morning Star heralds
her approach (see Mooney, _A Kiowa Mescal Rattle_).
[114] Doctoring is second only to the vision for individual knowledge
and power in the Plains. Kiowa peyote doctors have special prestige
among other tribes. In 1936 I sponsored a Kiowa meeting near Stecker,
Oklahoma, for Belo Kozad to doctor Ernest Kokome who was suffering
from tuberculosis. (Ernest had given me his trade-blanket beaded
peyote-necktie in 1935 on the morning after a meeting at which I had
admired it.) After midnight, Belo chewed four peyote and gave them to
Ernest, fanning him with feathers and cedar incense; then he made a
cross in front of the patient with a glowing coal, and, putting it in
his mouth, blew all over the face and chest of the sick young man, who
unbuttoned his shirt for the purpose. Next Belo fanned or batted him with
his feathers, the patient holding up his palms to absorb the medicine
virtue. Finally he took a mouthful of water and blew it on Ernest’s head,
praying and beseeching in the name of Jesus Christ for him to get well.
Peyote gave Belo the power to doctor thus and not be burned by the coal.
Peyote was brought to the Creek, indeed, for doctoring by Jim Aton
(a famous Kiowa peyote doctor). Much in demand, he has doctored in
peyote meetings of the Yuchi, Shawnee, Kickapoo, Creek, Caddo, Osage,
Comanche, Kiowa Apache, Kiowa, Mescalero Apache and Quapaw; also whites
and Mexicans. His methods of doctoring have been described previously.
The well-known Comanche peyote doctor, Jim Post-oak, “hollers like a
bear in doctoring.” (People often imitate the animal-sources of their
power in the morning, in the midst of others’ singing, either from
peyote-“euphoria” or in praise of particularly good singing.) Peyote
doctoring by Old Man Horse (Kiowa) influenced the Oto rite of the Church
of the First-born too. Peyote can perform cures unassisted outside
meetings also, as shown by the case of Tommy Cat who ate peyote over the
protests of his nurse in a hospital and was cured.
[115] Polonian obviousness is usually the note in these harangues (sit up
straight and keep awake in meetings, wear clean clothes and bathe before
coming, wear a blanket, keep your mind on good things in the ceremony,
don’t look around the tipi, don’t drink whiskey, don’t lie to your wife
or show off, but pray for your wife and children, respect old people,
humble yourself, go home again if you come to a crowded meeting)—but
occasionally specific admonitions are made. A Kiowa jokester, J. S., had
had trouble with his wife, and was plainly talked to in meeting. Quanah
Parker used to lecture young people in the morning. Long prayers are
another means of making psychological transactions. Some tribes make
individual public confessions at this time.
[116] Mooney, _The Mescal Plant_, 8.
[117] Some rattle the marbles of the drum, put them in the mouth and
spit them into the palm. Members commonly “baptize” themselves with the
drum-water, using the drumstick to moisten the palm and rubbing the
hair, face, chest, arms and thighs as in blessing with cedar incense;
some paint themselves with the charcoal in the drum. The remaining water
in the drum is poured along the moon. The sage under the peyote may be
passed to the patient, if there is one, or it may be requested for absent
ailing relatives.
[118] Sometimes the stories have a moral point; the following was told
by O. W. (Comanche) to E. R. (Delaware): the leader of a Wichita Easter
meeting had a fine watch, costing from $150 to $200. At daylight, before
water time, wanting to display it, he put it down by the feathers. A man
to the north was singing and making vigorous punches toward the peyote.
When he looked at his watch later, “it was just a mess of works in there
loose, and the hands dropped off,” though nobody had touched it. “It
don’t pay to go in there and then try to show off.”
[119] “The first shall be last and the last shall be first.” Hoebel says
the Comanche fire-chief takes one step outside, turns completely around
once, and continues his way, the others exiting in a straight fashion.
Cf. the Huichol turns.
[120] A Comanche told me a Kiowa ate a lot of peyote once and tried to
sing a Comanche song. He sang the wrong words, which meant “Mentula
exposita est, Mentula exposita est!” (Cf. the Oto jokes about songs.)
A typical experience of Belo Kozad involves the hearing of a new
peyote song, psychological anxiety, a moral, and an explanation about
power-getting: A peyote song, without words, once came to him in a
vision. He seemed to be in the south, in soft grass. In the distance he
saw a man, whom he followed. He did not know it, but this man represented
Temptation. Belo followed the man, who was leading him off somewhere.
Suddenly the man kicked backwards with his foot [a familiar folkloristic
element] and went on. When Belo approached he found apples there; he
refused to take one. Further on the man kicked back with his other foot.
This time Belo found dollar bills and playing cards; these he refused
too. A third time he found pictures of beautiful girls in various poses,
but he withstood temptation. Finally he came to the top of a hill, over
the brow of which the man had disappeared ahead of him. Then he heard the
man talk to him from behind: “The apples, the cards, and the pictures all
meant temptation. You have withstood them all. Upon the top of this hill
you will find good fortune if you take this peyote.” Belo went up and saw
there a terrible chasm, crossed by a bridge of a single tipi pole. The
man said that the pole had to be crossed with four steps; if he did this
he would have great curing power. The man danced forward and backward
across the pole to show Belo, singing this song the while. But Belo was
afraid to cross the chasm and turned back thus not acquiring the curing
power.
[121] Indeed, among some groups like the Caddo, doctoring is expressly
absent.
[122] In Mescalero, too, “prophecy and advice were no small part of the
performance. It was rarely that his power did not vouchsafe the shaman
some reassuring information concerning the longevity of his patient, the
number of grandchildren with which he would be blessed, and the future
state of his fortunes.” They also controlled the weather thus, found lost
objects, located the enemy, etc., but doctoring was the main feature of
Mescalero peyote meetings.
[123] Shonle (_Peyote: Giver of Visions_, 57) notes that peyote was
latterly a reservation phenomenon, when tribal enmities were gone. The
Ghost Dance had been anti-White; peyotism was a compromise, and the
friendly intertribal contacts growing out of the Ghost Dance could now be
exploited.
[124] Cf. Tamaulipecan rites and the black-drink ball-game of the
Southeast. (The black drink was as nearby as the Karankawa.) The
Southwest-Southeast connections are more than superficial; Beals
(_Comparative Ethnology_, 142) believes there is a probable connection of
Southwest-Mexican alcoholic drinks with the Southeastern black drink.
[125] Curiously the cigarette of the region farther west is universal in
the intrusive Plains peyote rite, while at Mescalero the stone elbow pipe
is passed around in the calumet fashion of the Plains in one leader’s
ceremony.
[126] Is this a culture-environmental problem?—for the same substance
which was spectacularly aphrodisiac in Lame Deer, Montana, was stubbornly
anaphrodisiac in Philadelphia. Unfortunately for the accusing school
of thought, Bennett and Zingg’s trait-distribution tables indicate a
negative association of sexual promiscuity and the ritual use of peyote
in Mexico.
[127] Opler says that “in no other Mescalero ceremony is a mound of earth
in the shape of a crescent found. On the other hand, crude earth tracings
did grace a Mescalero rite occasionally, and the moon was much in
evidence in ritual song and design. The staff of the peyote shaman seems
an innovation at first thought; yet it has a counterpart in the ‘old
age stick’ held by the singer in the girl’s puberty rite.” The gourd in
Mescalero has exclusively peyote associations. On the whole, the standard
Plains ceremony appears to have taken shape among the Lipan-Mescalero.
But Curtis (_North American Indian_ 19:199-200) says that the White
Mountain Apache were the first United States users and that “the ritual
[in the United States] is obviously copied from the Wichita ceremonial
form.”