As we have noted in the section on the botany of peyote, the use of
the term “mescal” is surrounded with considerable confusion, and is
persistently used in the older literature to designate _Lophophora
williamsii_ or peyote. The true mescal is the _Agave_ spp. whose
cabbage-like center is baked by the tribes of the Southwest and
northern Mexico as a food; “mescal” also refers to the brandy distilled
from mescal beer or pulque. No doubt it is due to their intoxicating
properties that two other distinct plants, _Sophora secundiflora_
and _Lophophora williamsii_, have been called, respectively, “mescal
bean” and “mescal button.” A further confusion of these last has been
contributed to by the fact that both have been involved in Plains cult
uses.
_Sophophora secundiflora_ is an evergreen shrub bearing two or three
tough-shelled red seeds in a bean-like pod. Known in Mexico as “toleselo”
and elsewhere as mescal-bean, coral-bean,[1] frijolito, frijolillo and
mountain laurel,[2] it contains the extremely toxic narcotic alkaloid
sophorine or cytisine,[3] the physiological action of which accounts for
its ceremonial use by natives. This is a powerful poison causing nausea,
convulsions and finally death by asphyxiation; it is said[4] to resemble
nicotine closely in physiological action. A more complete botanical and
physiological account appears in an appendix, and we are here concerned
only with its ethnographic aspects.