Note 20 — THE ETHNOLOGY OF PEYOTISM

Alegre, Historia de la Compañía, 2:219-20; Prieto, Historia y Estadistica, 131. It is not proven that peyote applied externally has an anaesthetic or anodyne action (the Zacatecan use in the childbirth ceremony is internal); but natives recognize the ability of peyote to induce a stuporous state. The Aztec (Gerste, Notes sur le médicine, 51) used peyote to stupify sacrificial victims. But peyote does not cause sleepiness, and the following Maratine Indian battle song (in Prieto, op. cit., 119-20; Mooney, Peyote Notebook) should perhaps be translated “become stuporous:” “The women and ourselves shouting with pleasure, Shall drink peyote and shall fall asleep.” For Opata data see Ensayo, in Mooney, Tarumari-Guayachic; for Lipan see Opler, The Use of Peyote.