Note 23 — XIII. A USE OF POISONOUS FUNGI QUITE PROBABLY EXISTED AMONG THE MEXICANS.

The word “mattika” cannot be found in Forbes’ English-Hindustani Dictionary (London, 1848). It may, perhaps, belong to an extinct dialect. The word “matt,” meaning “drunk,” would serve a good purpose for this article could a relationship be shown to exist between it and “mattika.” This the author is of course unable to do, being totally ignorant of Hindustani. Neither does “badrilata” occur in Forbes, who interprets “mistletoe” as “banda.” The contributor to the Asiatic Researches, who used the word, thought it meant “agaric.”