[1] Safford, _An Aztec Narcotic_ 294; _Identification of Teo-nanacatl,
Narcotic Plants; Peyote_, 1278-79.
[2] Sahagún, _Historia general_, Lib. 10, cap. xxix: “... ellos mismos
discubrieron, y usaron primero la raíz que llaman peiotl, y los que
comian y tomaban la usaban en lugar de vino, y lo mismo hacian de los
que llaman nanacatl que son los bongos malos que emborrachan tambien
como el vino.” The authoritative edition of Jourdanet and Siméon, 661-62
translates nanacatl as “champignon vénéneux.”
[3] Sahagún, _Historia general_, 3:241-42: “Hay otra yerba como tunas
de tierra, se llama peiotl, es blanca, hacese ácia la parte del norte,
los que la comen ó beben vén visiones espantosas ó irrisibles.” (Lib.
11, cap. vii, pt. i, “De ciertas yerbas que emborrachen.”) Jourdanet and
Siméon, 737, unfortunately describe tunas as “une ... plante qui rapelle
la truffe,” which is a mushroom. Sahagún’s work is virtual dictation from
Aztec informants, later translated with painstaking care into Spanish. It
is difficult to assume, as did Safford, that such able herbalists did not
know the difference between a cactus and a fungus.
[4] “Hay unos honguillos en esta tierra que se llaman teo-nanacatl,
críanse debajo del heno en los campos ó páramos; son redondos, tienen
el pie altillo, delgado y redondo, comidos son de mal sabor, dañan
la garganta y emborrachan.” (_Idem_, 3:241-42.) To be sure our own
best scientific knowledge must always be the touchstone for the data
of the various folk-sciences; yet one is not entitled to a lofty and
comprehensive _á priori_ distrust of native knowledge, particularly when
detailed with such clarity as this.
[5] “Las setas (hongos ó nanacatl) hacen genus campos agrorum en los
montes, son buenas de comer....” (Sahagún, _Historia general_, 3:243).
[6] Hernandez, in Safford, _Aztec Narcotic_, 293. The very word
itself means “mushroom!” Reko’s etymology for teo-nanacatl, “divine
nourishment,” is unsound according to Whorf; and indeed, there is nothing
of the edible _par excellence_ about fungi (see Schultes, _Peyote and
Plants Used_, 136-37).
[7] Siméon, in Safford, _Identification of Teo-nanacatl_, 400, 412.
[8] de la Serna, _Manual de Ministros_, 261.
[9] Cf. the Huichol peyote-gathering ritual and the wind which arises.
[10] Safford, _Aztec Narcotic_, 291. Indeed in this short sub-chapter,
Sahagún distinguishes and describes coatlxoxouhqui = ololiuhqui
[its seeds] peyotl, tlapatl, tzintzintlapatl, mixitl, teo-nanacatl,
tochtetepo, atlepatli, aquiztli, tenxoxoli and quimichpatli! Alarcón,
_Tratado_, 131; also in Urbina, _El Peyote y el Ololhiuqui_, 27.
[11] _Ritos Antiquos_; in Kingsborough, 9:17. Jourdenet and Siméon,
translators of Sahagún, _Histoire général_, 738, have: “[Teo-nanacatl]
c’est-à-dire: champignon dangereux. Le terme générique est nanacatl qui
se met en composition avec d’autres mots pour désigner les diverses
espèces de champignons.”
[12] _Crónica Mexicana_; in Kingsborough, 9:153. The fact that _raw_
mushrooms are mentioned disposes of Safford’s supposition that _dried_
peyote buttons are meant.
[13] Durán, _Historia de las Indias_, 564, quoted from Kingsborough’s
_Mexican Antiquities_ by Bourke, _Scatological Rites_, 90.