Note 120 — THE ETHNOLOGY OF PEYOTISM

A Comanche told me a Kiowa ate a lot of peyote once and tried to sing a Comanche song. He sang the wrong words, which meant “Mentula exposita est, Mentula exposita est!” (Cf. the Oto jokes about songs.) A typical experience of Belo Kozad involves the hearing of a new peyote song, psychological anxiety, a moral, and an explanation about power-getting: A peyote song, without words, once came to him in a vision. He seemed to be in the south, in soft grass. In the distance he saw a man, whom he followed. He did not know it, but this man represented Temptation. Belo followed the man, who was leading him off somewhere. Suddenly the man kicked backwards with his foot [a familiar folkloristic element] and went on. When Belo approached he found apples there; he refused to take one. Further on the man kicked back with his other foot. This time Belo found dollar bills and playing cards; these he refused too. A third time he found pictures of beautiful girls in various poses, but he withstood temptation. Finally he came to the top of a hill, over the brow of which the man had disappeared ahead of him. Then he heard the man talk to him from behind: “The apples, the cards, and the pictures all meant temptation. You have withstood them all. Upon the top of this hill you will find good fortune if you take this peyote.” Belo went up and saw there a terrible chasm, crossed by a bridge of a single tipi pole. The man said that the pole had to be crossed with four steps; if he did this he would have great curing power. The man danced forward and backward across the pole to show Belo, singing this song the while. But Belo was afraid to cross the chasm and turned back thus not acquiring the curing power.