Far the commonest designation for peyote in the older literature is
“mescal bean,” a curiously persistent misusage, since either in the dried
or the green state _Lophophora williamsii_ resembles a bean even less
than a mushroom, Safford’s teo-nanacatl. On probing more deeply into this
confusion, a widespread pre-peyote narcotic cult of the southern Plains
was discovered. The ethnographic results of this study are presented in
the text, but a brief characterization of the “mescal bean” proper is
essential as well.
Collected specimens of the old Plains “red bean” (= mescal bean proper)
have been identified by authorities at the Harvard Botanical Museum
as _Sophora secundiflora_ (Ortega) Lag. ex DC.[1] Variously known as
“mescal bean” (southern Plains), “colorín” (Coahuila, Nuevo León, Texas),
“frijolillo” (Nuevo León, Texas), “frijolito” (Texas), “evergreen
coral-bean,” “coral-bean” and “mountain laurel” (southern New Mexico),
this plant grows from Coahuila to San Luis Potosí, western Texas and
southern New Mexico, being specially characteristic of the dry limestone
hills. It is not, however, the “mountain laurel” _Kalmia latifolia_,
being a true member of the Fabaceae or Bean Family; the term “coral-bean”
is likewise applied to two other legumes of Texas, both, however,
_Erythrina_ spp., not _Sophora_.[2]
_Sophora secundiflora_ contains the highly toxic narcotic alkaloid
sophorine, C₁₁H₁₄ON₂, which is identical with cytisine (= ulexine, =
baptitoxine). Resembling nicotine closely in physiological action, the
contents of one bean are said to be able to produce nausea, convulsions
and even death by asphyxiation in man.[3] _Sophora secundiflora_ (=
_Broussonetia secundiflora_) itself is a handsome evergreen shrub or
small tree, eight to thirty-five feet high, bearing thick, leathery,
dark glossy green leaves. The violet-blue bunches of flowers appearing
in the spring give off a strong rank fragrance, and from these develop,
in the summer, woody pods, satiny outside, two to four inches long, and
containing one to four hard-shelled bright red beans.[4]
Safford[5] states that “these beans are often confused with those of
certain species of _Erythrina_, which are sometimes sold in their place
in the markets of Mexico, but which are not at all narcotic.” It is
therefore possible, and indeed probable, that the beans used as necklaces
and bandoliers in the Plains were both _Sophora_ spp. and _Erythrina_
spp.; Mooney[6] for example had specimens of red bean necklaces
identified as _S. secundiflora_ and _E. fruticisa_. The confusion of
the two closely related groups is understandable when the beans alone
are available for diagnosis; the bean of _Sophora secundiflora_ differs
from that of _Erythrina flabelliformis_, for example, in little more
than the shape of the hilum, or scar of attachment, that of the former
being rounded and of the latter more linear, while the beans of _E.
corraloides_ are more elongate than those of _Sophora_. Gilmore’s[7]
identification of the Omaha “red-medicine” with _Erythrina_ spp. may
possibly be wholly correct since he mentions only decorative and
magic uses for the beans; but in view of the chemical composition of
the two, any ritual narcotic use must _a fortiori_ refer to _Sophora
secundiflora_, the “mescal bean” proper.