Note 25 — HISTORICAL INTERPRETATIONS

The Huichol, for whatever such evidence is worth, in the mythological songs of their shamans, recite how the world began and how they were taught to hunt deer, to seek hikuli and to raise corn (Lumholtz, Unknown Mexico, 2:8). The route they take in gathering peyote is from beginning to end full of religious and mythological associations, and they meet their deities on the way in the shape of mountains, stones, springs, etc. (idem, 2:132). According to their traditions, they originated in the south, but got lost under the earth as they wandered northward, reappearing in the country of the hikuli (idem, 2:23). Such deep-rooted symbolisms as theirs argues age.