Note 2 — APPENDIX 1: PEYOTE IN MEXICO

In simpler Mexican cultures, peyote was in the hands of shamans; this other peyote appears to derive its name from the priests of a certain class in the higher Aztec culture: “According to some authorities, the highest grade of these native hierophants bore among the Nahuas the symbolic name of ‘flower weavers,’ Xochimilca, probably from the skill they had to deceive the senses by strange and pleasant visions (Xochimilca, que asi llamavan á los mui sabios encantadores)” (Torquemada, in Brinton, Nagualism, 298).