Note 23 — BOTANICAL AND PHYSIOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF PEYOTE

Mooney (Peyote Notebook, 21) likewise says the Kiowa term for peyote sęⁱ means “prickly” or “prickly fruit” and is generic for all cacti. But peyote, it will be remembered, is conspicuous for its lack of spines; perhaps this was an older term for the prickly pear, Opuntia opuntia, transferred to the more recently known plant. In any case it occurs nowadays in many compounds: sęⁱmąyi, “peyote woman,” sęⁱpiⁱ, “peyote meeting,” etc., and in the phrase behábe sęⁱᴅɔki, “smoke, peyote power.” (Compare the Comanche hos mäbä´mho’i.) See also Mooney, Calendar History, 239; Rouhier, Monographie, 4; Kroeber, The Arapaho, 399; Speck, Notes on the Life of John Wilson, 552.