Note 65 — THE ETHNOLOGY OF PEYOTISM

A little white flower, tōtó, of the wet corn-producing season symbolizes corn for the Huichol and is a prayer for it, being plastered on women’s cheeks, woven in girdles, etc. (Lumholtz, Unknown Mexico, 229-30). The Tamaulipecan rite celebrates the harvest and deer-hunting as well as war; the Tepehuane all-night rite with a mimicry of deer-hunting ends with a feast on the first “toasted corn” of the season (Lumholtz, 1:479). Acaxee corn toasted on the ear was the usual food on war-parties (Beals, 10). Concerning the standardized parched-corn in sugar-water of the Plains, note that the Aztec made offerings of toasted corn (sometimes with honey), and to the culture-hero Opuchtli offered mumuchtli “a sort of corn which when toasted opens up and shows the white marrow [popcorn] forming a very white flower. They said this represented hail, which is attributed to the water gods.” (Sahagún, A History of Ancient Mexico, 1:36, 40, 87.)