Note 16 — THE ETHNOLOGY OF PEYOTISM
Reading edition
A Wichita leader envisioned a flag three months before being drafted into the army; the fetish-peyote he carried over-seas miraculously escaped confiscation during an inspection and disinfection of clothing, and because of it he was only slightly wounded in battle. One meeting I attended was in performance of a vow if the Bonus legislation then pending would pass. This same leader prophetically dreamt of how peyote would protect him on a pilgrimage to Mexico and aid him through the customs with a supply of plants, and all happened as predicted.
The Tarahumari dare not touch the dekúba (datura) plant lest they go crazy or die; this presents a problem since the plants are common in their winter caves. The peyote shaman, however, armed with the more powerful plant uproots the datura with impunity. Peyote is the only cure for the otherwise fatal disease which comes from touching dekúba (Bennett and Zingg, op. cit., 138, 294).