Note 1 — BOTANICAL AND PHYSIOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF PEYOTE

“They [the Chichimeca] have a considerable knowledge of plants and roots, their qualities and their virtues. They were the first to discover and use the root called peiotl, which enters among their comestibles in the place of wine” (Sahagún, Histoire générale, 10:661-62). Again, “There is another herb, like tunas of the earth [tunas is the Spanish name for the fruit of the prickly pear, Opuntia opuntia]; it is called peiotl; it is white; it is produced in the north country; those who eat or drink it see visions either frightful or laughable; this intoxication lasts two or three days and then ceases” (Sahagún, Historia general, 3:241; in Safford, An Aztec Narcotic, 294-95).

Translations from the Spanish have been made with the aid of Mr. H. W. Tessen of the Yale Graduate School.