Note 1 — APPENDIX 8: CHRISTIAN ELEMENTS IN THE PEYOTE CULT

“[De la Serna] adds that ... they delighted in caricaturing the Eucharist, dividing among their congregation a narcotic yellow mushroom for the bread, and the inebriating pulque for the wine. Sometimes they adroitly concealed in the pyx, alongside the holy water, some little idol of their own, so that they really followed their own superstitions while seemingly adoring the Host. They assigned a purely pagan sense to the sacred formula, ‘Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,’ understanding it to be, ‘Fire, Earth, and Water,’ or the like” (Brinton, Nagualism, 28); Bennett and Zingg, The Tarahumara, 369, 385. Coix Lachryma Jobi was an early Spanish introduction, but may have replaced some native seed (e.g., mescal) used as beads. Serna’s mushroom is probably teo-nanacatl.