Part 13

[52] Koshiway said he ate 100 once: “I was like a Ford, all broken down, connecting rods loose. The next day I was overhauled and hitting on all four, and went to work.” Belo Kozad, well-known Kiowa leader, said he ate 100 green peyote once but had a “hard time keeping it down.” Big Bow (Kiowa) claims to have eaten 75 at the time of his prophetic vision of the World War. One Oto sometimes eats 40 to 50 at which a man comes and instructs him. Alfred Wilson (Cheyenne) for eight years President of the Oklahoma N.A.C. said he ate 84 green ones once. Densmore (_Winnebago Songs of the Peyote Ceremony_) says Winnebago ate 40 to 100, and many of them ate 60; elsewhere (_The Peyote Cult_) she states a Winnebago usually ate 15, but some ate up to 40. Lipan (Opler, _Lipan Apache Field Notes_) ate 12 to 50. A Tonkawa leader (Opler, _Chiricahua Apache_) ate 40. Users at Taos (Parsons, _Taos Pueblo_, 66) ate as many as 60, but usually about 20 or 30. Mescalero (Opler, _The Influence of Aboriginal Pattern_) ate from 4 to 40, with 12 as a “generous amount.” Iowa (Skinner, _Societies of the Iowa_, 724-25) considered 16 a good amount, women being restricted to 2. Huichol (Lumholtz, _The Huichol Indians_, 9) rarely ate more than 4 or 5 daily, but at times consumed up to 20. An Arapaho stated under oath (_Peyote as Used in Religious Worship_, 49) he had eaten 12-30 peyote at different times, agreeing with Kroeber’s average of 12, with amounts of more than 30 eaten sometimes. A White observer in a Comanche meeting said he had seen them eat 30 or 40 apiece (Simmons, _The Peyote Road_). An Osage, on the other hand, stated before an official group that 5 was the upper limit for women and 7 for men (_Peyote as Used in Religious Worship_, 31), a statement open to doubt.

[53] Opler, _Lipan Apache Field Notes_.

[54] Opler, _The Influence of Aboriginal Pattern_; _Chiracahua Apache_; Parsons, _Taos Pueblo_, 3; Kroeber, _The Arapaho_, 402, 405; Skinner, _Ethnology of the Ioway_, 249 (but the Christian symbolism here is Plains); Harrington, _Religion and Ceremonies_, 187-88; Petrullo, _The Diabolic Root_, 53.

[55] The cane was the symbol of the Aztec merchant, and his friends did this utlatl or otate great reverence at a feast on the return from his travels; it symbolized Yiacatecutli, the god of merchants. Slaves were also sacrificed at a temple rite involving the canes (Sahagún, _A History of Ancient Mexico_, 1:41-42). Among the Huichol the staff of the judges in the native courts are accorded “a superstitious reverence” as symbols of authority (Lumholtz, _Unknown Mexico_, 2:250). And although Governor Valdes had visited most of the pueblos to appoint native governors and captains by the year 1642, in Tarahumari the native term for leaders is igúsuame, “stick-bearers” or selfgame, “lance-bearers” (Bennett and Zingg, _The Tarahumara_, 375-76).

[56] Skinner, _Societies of the Iowa_, 718; Harrington, _Religion and Ceremonies_, 187-88; Opler, _Lipan Apache Field Notes_.

[57] Parsons, _Taos Pueblo_, 65; Skinner, _Societies of the Iowa_, 725; Radin, _A Sketch of the Peyote Cult_, 4, 21; Densmore, _The Peyote Cult_ (but there is no biblical authority for this in Exodus 7. 19, 20. or concerning Aaron’s rod in Exodus 8 or 10.13).

[58] Skinner, _Societies of the Iowa_, 724; Cooke, _Ute Field Notes_.

[59] Winnebago gourds often have on them pictures of Christ, the cross and “crown” of thorns, the shepherd’s crook and other Christian symbols (White Buffalo, in Blair, _The Indian Tribes_, 282; see also Harrington, _Religion and Ceremonies_, 188; _Handbook of the American Indians_, 2:355b; Kroeber, _The Arapaho_, 400, 405; Radin, _Crashing Thunder_, 20).

[60] The best gourds are relatively small, not more than 3″ in diameter, somewhat flattened on the top rather than spherical, and elongated toward the handle. A hole is made through the gourd opposite the neck, cut off an inch or so from the round part; a stick is thrust through these, the neck hole being reinforced and made smaller by whittling down half a spool and glueing it in. There is no peg transversely through the portion emerging through the top, but both this and the handle part are usually covered with tightly-sewn buckskin to which bead-work is attached; some handles are carved or left plain. A tuft of red-dyed horse-hair is often put on the top and a buckskin fringe at the bottom; shot or pebbles make the sound.

[61] Kroeber, _The Arapaho_, 400; Skinner, _Ethnology of the Ioway_, 249; _Societies of the Iowa_, 724; Hoebel, Voegelin, Opler, and Cooke, _Field Notes_; Mooney (_Miscellaneous Notes_) says Comanche drums had eight marbles sometimes, as had also the Shawnee, according to Mrs. Voegelin.

[62] The Kickapoo once tried a four-legged brass kettle instead of the regulation three-legged iron one, but soon discarded it, having decided that the tone was not right (this probably rationalizes some criticism of their ostentation). The Caddo had a 10-marbled crock drum with a deer skin head; the Oto, who have the kettle drum, sometimes use a crock, as do the Omaha (Gilmore, _The Mescal Society_, 166; _Uses of Plants_). The Delaware sometimes used otter skin instead of deer skin, with four bosses tightened with a sharp stick or deer-horn (Harrington, _Religion and Ceremony_, 188; Petrullo, _The Diabolic Root_, 50).

[63] Cf. the Mexican belief about the peyote under the gourd-resonator. Such taboos in regard to drums are also Iroquoian I believe, and possibly Southeastern.

[64] Skinner, _Societies of the Iowa_, 726; Densmore, _Winnebago Songs of Peyote Ceremonies_.

[65] The Chickasaw beat on a wet deer skin tied over the mouth of a large clay pot (Adair, _History_, 140). The Choctaw beat with one drumstick on a deer skin stretched over an earthen pot or kettle (Swanton, _Social and Religious Beliefs_, 222); they used the goat skin covered cypress knee drum as well (Bushnell, _Choctaw_, 22), and also bear skin and deer skin (Swanton, _op. cit._, 224). The Koasati older drum was deer skin over a cypress knee, and later the small iron kettle (Paz, _Field Notes_). The Taskigi Creek used a hollow vessel partly filled with water (Speck, _The Creek Indians_, 137). The Yuchi, besides the log drum, had the pot drum, containing water, about 18″ high; the hide was usually decorated with a wheel-like design and the privilege of beating the drum was invested in a certain individual (Speck, _Yuchi_, 61, cf. the Caddo, in some respects a peripheral Southeastern group and who have the “crock” drum). The Catawba and Quapaw also had the pot-drum (Speck, _Catawba Texts_; _Handbook of the American Indian_, 2:335b). It is not known if the Tonkawa water-drum is pre-peyote, but the Lipan pottery drum is late according to Opler. The water-drum of the Southeast is continuous through the Antilles into South America (Wissler, _The American Indian_, 154).

Wissler makes no mention of Mexican or Southwestern occurrences of the kettle-drum or water-drum, but the trait is common in these regions. The Aztec had the kettle-drum (Sahagún, _A History of Ancient Mexico_, 1:87, 91). Beals (_Comparative Ethnology_, 112, 188, Table 71) lists the atabale or kettle-drum in Tehueco, Culiacan, Tepic (Zentispac), Tarasco, and Mexico. The pottery drum is Lacandone, Natchez and Chitimacha also (Swanton, _Aboriginal Culture_, 708, in Beals, 188). Stevenson (_The Zuñi_, 39) mentions a Tepehan pottery drum struck loudly at certain ceremonies to insure the presence of beings who would keep the singing of songs correct. The Western Apache have “male” and “female” water drums (Henry, J., _Cult of Silas John Edwards_). The Huichol use no drum in the peyote ceremony; the Tamaulipecan peyote-drum is the wooden type, as is also the Tarahumari drum (Bennett and Zingg, _The Tarahumara_, 67-68) and the Huichol drum, which is “alive” (Lumholtz, _Unknown Mexico_, 2:32-34). The Taos is the standard peyote drum; but the pottery drum is found among non-users of peyote: e.g., Navaho, Chiricahua, W. Apache, Jicarilla, Yavapai and Pueblo in general (Spier, information).

[66] Hoebel, _Comanche Field Notes_; Skinner, _Societies of the Iowa_, 724, 758; Densmore, _The Peyote Cult_; Parsons, _Taos Pueblo_, 65; Speck, _A Study of the Delaware_, _passim_.

[67] Kroeber, _The Arapaho_, 405-409; Opler, _The Influence of Aboriginal Pattern_; Radin, _Crashing Thunder_, 176; Opler, _Carrizo Field Notes_. The feather as a symbol of delegated authority is also found in the Ghost Dance.

[68] Cf. Boas, _Anthropology_, 91, “... the feathers of the Dakota Indians ... by the way they are cut and painted, express warlike exploits.”

[69] Hills, _Eating Medicine with the Quapaws_.

[70] Harrington, _Religion and Ceremonies_, 188; Opler, _The Influence of Aboriginal Pattern_. _Handbook of the American Indians_, 1:455-56, “The downy feather was to the mind of the Indian a kind of bridge between the spirit world and ours.” Note the Ponca whistling along the water bucket feather.

[71] Kroeber, _The Arapaho_, 403, 405, 407.

[72] The Oto and Arapaho wear tufts of down feathers on their hair in meetings; cf. the Tarahumari shaman’s feather headdress which tells him all the bird knew and protects him by preventing air from entering his head and making him ill (Lumholtz, _Unknown Mexico_, 1:313).

[73] Mooney, _Peyote Notebook_, 28. Crashing Thunder visioned an eagle with outspread wings in a meeting once (Radin, 188-89).

[74] Huichol peyote fetishes include the squirrel, skunk, birds and the shaman’s fetish plant; the Tarahumari have the squirrel, birds and peyote plant; the southern Plains birds and the peyote plant; and the northern Plains the plant only—an interesting degeneration in complexity of symbolism, a sort of diffusionist law of inverse squares.

[75] Kroeber, _The Arapaho_, 401, 406; letter of L. L. Meeker to Mooney.

[76] Radin, _Crashing Thunder_, 181-82; _A Sketch of the Peyote Cult_, 21; _The Winnebago Tribe_, 389, “They are regarded by a number of people, certainly by Rave, with undisguised veneration [i.e., the peyote ‘chiefs’].”

[77] Skinner, _Societies of the Iowa_, 724; Opler, _Chiricahua Apache_; _The Influence of Aboriginal Pattern_; _Lipan Apache Field Notes_; Parsons, _Taos Pueblo_, 64-65. Cf. the Anadarko Delaware phrase “ear-eating” for peyote-eating (Speck, _Notes on the Life of John Wilson_, 552).

[78] An especially handsome and regular one, oriented with a thorn on its “north” side, had fifteen full radial lines of hair-tufts. Of three others, one was kept in a woman’s small mirrored vanity-case, a pomade jar, and a silk handkerchief, all carefully wrapped up. Another very old one was given his brother-in-law, Yellow Bird, by a Comanche. A cracked one was kept in a beaded buckskin pouch along with a Catholic medallion dated 1890; it had been given him by an Apache. He has also preserved one given his wife by Mexicans at El Rio on their first peyote trip in 1926, and tied up with the mother’s he keeps two little ones which helped his little girl. And finally, there were seven which he laid behind the whistle one New Year’s meeting to represent the seven days of the week; his daughter drank the water in which they were soaked and became well in seven days. She is a grown woman now and he still keeps these peyotes which have so well demonstrated their power.

[79] The Comanche leader Mumsika still preserves a famous peyote button formerly belonging to Kutubi which performed prophecies on an historical war party into Texas (Hoebel, _Comanche Field Notes_). The anxiety of Clyde Koko (Kiowa) when he thought he had lost his “father peyotes” after changing his mind about sending them back to their original country, well demonstrates the psychological reality of these fetishisms.

[80] Radin, _Crashing Thunder_, 169, note; Gilmore, _The Mescal Society_, 165-66; Speck (manuscript); Skinner, _Societies of the Iowa_, 724; Densmore, _The Peyote Cult_; _Winnebago Songs of the Peyote Ceremony_.

[81] Radin, _Crashing Thunder_, 200. This is indeed a miracle if he read it in Matthew 16.

[82] Radin, _Crashing Thunder_, 186-87; _Sketch of the Peyote Cult_, 5; _The Winnebago Tribe_, 394-95.

[83] Radin, _Sketch of the Peyote Cult_, 6; _The Winnebago Tribe_, 395-96. The reference to John 1.4 indicates nothing of relevance.

[84] Romans 11.16-18. No native with whom the writer is acquainted has to date noted the obvious Shakespearean reference to peyote, in the speech of Banquo as the three witches vanish incorporeally into thin air (Macbeth I, iii): “Were such things here as we do speak about, or have we eaten on the insane root that takes the reason prisoner?”

[85] The Carrizo-Lipan had no crescent mound, which is probably of Mescalero origin.

[86] Gilmore, _The Mescal Society_, 165-66.

[87] Cf. _Handbook of the American Indians_, 2:2b, 661: “Formerly among the southern Plains tribes a buffalo skull was placed on a small mound in front of the sweat house, the mound being formed of earth excavated from the fireplace.” The original Comanche and Caddo moons appear to have been more horseshoe- than crescent-shaped, and the apron of the Caddoan Big Moons obviously developed from an elongation of the horns. The introduction of the heart is apparently Caddoan also, influenced probably by the Catholic “Sacred Heart” of Jesus.

[88] Enoch Hoag was at one time John Wilson’s assistant or drummer.

[89] A Comanche told Hoebel of a “moon” with the entire tipi-floor of cement; if this is identical with one I was told about, it has been subsequently destroyed. The rationalization given was that the cement floor distorted the sound of the drum, and a return to an earthen floor was made.

[90] The Kiowa and Caddo are therefore at opposite extremes; the Kiowa were the leading spirits in the institutionalizing of peyotism in the Native American Church, which gathered to itself even the earlier Church of the First-born. In this respect they are the “Catholics” of the movement, and, tired of the warring rival Protestantisms let loose by Caddo visionaries, many groups are undergoing an “Oxford Movement” back to the simplest earlier native forms, sans Bible and sans elaborate altars, which after all have been the vehicles for prestige and wealth of ambitious individualism.

[91] Several of Petrullo’s examples (Hoag, Black Wolf, etc.) are Caddo rather than Delaware. His Hoag moon (_The Diabolic Root_, pl. 5, B, p. 181) was given to the writer with a half-ellipse joining the moon-tips to form the lower part of the “face,” and the ash-mounds in position as “eyes,” and the two eastern hearts reversed.

[92] Hoebel, _Northern Cheyenne Field Notes_; Parsons, _Taos Pueblo_, 64.

[93] This specimen is figured in Schultes, _Peyote and Plants Used_, 7. Is this a reflex of an older Kickapoo pattern? The prophet Kanakuk furnished his followers with a chart showing a path through fire and water, and gave them prayer sticks graven with religious symbols. See _Handbook of the American Indians_, 1:650b, “Kanakuk.”

[94] Petrullo, _Diabolic Root_, 50, 101, 113. The symbolism of twelve of the Caddo here is clearly a Delaware borrowing; cf. the twelve panels in the Big Moon altars, the twelve eagle feathers, and the twelve sticks of the fire. See Speck, _Delaware Big House_, for the symbolism of twelve (twelve “heavens” etc.; cf. the twelve steps in the altar apron of the Wilson moon). Petrullo says the twelve sticks represent the months of the year or the tail-feathers of the eagle.

[95] Kroeber, _The Arapaho_, 401. See also Speck, _A Study of the Delaware Big House_, 47, 51. Cf. the Arapaho, Sitting Bull, the Ghost Dance prophet giving feathers to his assistants.

[96] The ceremonial fire we have seen is Huichol and Tarahumari (cf. the “pillow of Grandfather Fire” of the Huichol with the “heart” of the Caddo-Delaware peyote fire: both are used as a “smoke stick”). The Caddo ceremonial fire, however, was pre-peyote (_Handbook of the American Indians_, 2:2b; Swanton, _Aboriginal Culture_, 701). Beals (_Comparative Ethnology_, 127) lists the ceremonial fire for the Tarahumari, Caddo, Hasinai, Chitimacha, Houma, Natchez, Tunica, Taënsa, Jalisco (Cutzalán), Mexico, and Maya (Lacandone); it is lacking in Tepic-Culiacan, Old Sinaloa, Old Sonora, Southern Sierra and Tamaulipas (whence a southern Plains provenience for the ceremonial fire in peyotism is implausible). See also Beal’s map 26, 209; table 121, 211-12.

[97] It is believed that the Yuchi example figured by Petrullo in Plate 2 is erroneous in the placing of the ash eagle and in the presence of the redundant ash crescent.

[98] Interestingly, though the bulk of modern peyotists are Siouan, Caddoan and Algonquian groups, none used the elbow pipe in the ceremony—only Taos. See Wissler, _The American Indian_, 26, fig. 6.

[99] Skinner thought peyote destroyed the appetite for tobacco (_Societies of the Iowa_, 694, 726).

[100] Radin, _Crashing Thunder_. See Kroeber, _The Arapaho_, 401; Parsons, _Taos Pueblo_, 64, for standard form.

[101] Murie, _Pawnee Indian Societies_, 640-41.

[102] The importance of taking a comparative viewpoint is indicated by the statement of Gilmore, _The Mescal Society_, 165, “... the Omaha, of Nebraska, have interjected the use of wild sage, _Artemesia gnaphalodes_, in connection with mescal ceremonies, that plant having been an immemorial symbol of sacredness among the Omaha.” But see Kroeber, _The Arapaho_, 399, 401; Radin, _The Winnebago Tribe_, 415 and others.

[103] In view of other peyote parallels, note the sweat bath sage-whip.

[104] Parsons, _Taos Pueblo_, 65. The Arapaho (Kroeber, 402), Kiowa, and others chew bits of sage.

[105] Skinner, _Societies of the Iowa_, 722.

[106] Harrington (_Religion and Ceremonies_, 189) may be in error in stating that the staff is passed to the drummer’s _right;_ the native painting contradicts this; cf. Kroeber, _The Arapaho_, 402, for the standard method; concerning passing persons, see Parsons, _Taos Pueblo_, 65.

[107] Radin, _Crashing Thunder_, 171, 175-77, 185-87; cf. _The Winnebago Tribe_, 394-95; Parsons, _Taos Pueblo_, 64. Murie, _Pawnee Indian Societies_, 637.

[108] Cedar was used to purify the Delaware Big House (Speck, _A Study of the Delaware_, 171), which may account for the special cedar-man in the Delaware rite of Wilson. But the pattern may have been reinforced by the censer of the Catholics, by whom Wilson is known to have been influenced. The Mescalero ascribe sickness after eating peyote to witching by rival shamans. Mooney mentions an odorous root from New Mexico used protectively perhaps, in Kiowa or Comanche meetings. See Kroeber, _The Arapaho_, 402-403; Parsons, _Taos Pueblo_, 65, 105; Densmore, _The Peyote Cult_; _Winnebago Songs of the Peyote Ceremony_.

[109] Opler, _The Influence of Aboriginal Pattern_; cf. Parsons, _Taos Pueblo_, 63, 65.

[110] Mooney, _Miscellaneous Notes_, 8; _Peyote Notebook_, 12, 14. Dr. Maurice G. Smith collected a number of peyote songs near Anadarko in 1930 (see Densmore, _Winnebago Songs of the Peyote Ceremony_) as did Richardson in 1935 (Kiowa largely); see also Klineberg, _Notes on the Huichol_, 458. Radin (_A Sketch of the Peyote Cult_, 3; _The Winnebago Tribe_, 388) implies that the paraphernalia circulate only among the four leaders and others sing only occasionally. Songs are best in the morning when the unpleasant effects of the peyote have worn off (cf. Mooney, _The Mescal Plant_; Kroeber, _The Arapaho_, 404-405; Rouhier, _Monographie_, 344). Koshiway (Oto) told a joke in the morning about a partially deaf man’s misunderstanding the song “Jesus in the glory now, he ya na ha we,” and singing “Jesus in Missouri now.” Jack said, laughing, “He must be getting close, He’s just over the river now!” Opler’s informant said the Lipan can sing songs of a personal ceremony such as bear songs in peyote meetings, but not masked dancer songs.

[111] Skinner, _Societies of the Iowa_, 728. Densmore, _The Peyote Cult_: “The greatness (power) of God is made manifest through seven beasts, as prophesied. One beast is in power now, as seen by the troubles of the present time, all of which are according to prophecy. There is some spirit [the seraphim] praising God constantly, which signifies that we also should do that in order to inherit eternal life.”

[112] Murie, _Pawnee Indian Societies_, 637.

[113] Densmore, _The Peyote Cult_; _Winnebago Songs of the Peyote Ceremony_.

[114] Radin, _A Sketch of the Peyote Cult_, 5; _The Winnebago Tribe_, 395.

[115] Densmore, _The Peyote Cult_; Radin, _The Winnebago Tribe_, 416-17.

[116] Kroeber, _The Arapaho_, 403. A more concrete physiological reason for the leader’s exit was suggested in the preceding section.

[117] Skinner, _Societies of the Iowa_, 725, 727. Murie (_Pawnee Indian Societies_, 637) misplaced emphasis in stating that midnight ceremonies as such are peculiar to the Pawnee, yet he was correct, I believe, in implying that their special midnight recess was unique.

[118] Cf. Petrullo, _The Diabolic Root_, 116. Spybuck follows this Caddo-Delaware custom (Voegelin, _Shawnee Field Notes_.) Cf. the painting in Harrington (_Religion and Ceremonies_, pl. 9); but Spybuck is Shawnee not Delaware.

[119] The Osage case is offered thus tentatively as it was in answer to a leading question in a public hearing. See Office of Indian Affairs, _Discussion Concerning Peyote_, 44.

[120] Certainly doctoring was the most important element in the Southwest; cf. Bennett and Zingg, _The Tarahumara_, 294: “The use of peyote resembles an elaborate curing ceremony [among the Tarahumari] rather than a cult.” Opler (_The Influence of Aboriginal Pattern_) writes that “Apache ceremonialism had for its primary object the curing of disease,” and peyotism came within this framework.

[121] Radin, _A Sketch of the Peyote Cult_, 12-13; _The Winnebago Tribe_, 423.

[122] Densmore, _Winnebago Songs of the Peyote Ceremony_, 3.

[123] To be sure, diagnosis of illness by clairvoyance, etc., is resorted to, but this is to be expected when witchcraft is the main cause of sickness. (Cf. the combination of doctoring and divination with cohoba snuff in Haiti. Safford, _Narcotic Plants_, 393.) Obsessive elements of interest to psychiatry are found both in the witchcraft fear and in the methods chosen to cure the ill.

[124] Kroeber, _The Arapaho_, 405.

[125] Kiowa and Comanche parallels with older doctoring methods have been collected also. One of the latter involves a 2 foot mound in the tipi with a cedar sprig on it, a fire, a woman assistant, smoking of tobacco, and blowing on the patient.

[126] Densmore, _The Peyote Cult_; _Winnebago Songs of the Peyote Ceremony_.

[127] Parsons, _Taos Pueblo_, 60, 67-68.

[128] Harrington, _Religion and Ceremonies_, 189; Skinner, _Societies of the Iowa_, 725.

[129] Murie, _Pawnee Indian Societies_, 637.

[130] “[At] 5 o’clock in the morning, when suddenly the singing ceased, the drum and the ceremonial staff were put away, and the leader, beginning at the door, asked each person, ‘What did you see?’” (La Flesche, in _Peyote as Used in Religious Worship_, 33).

[131] Radin, _A Sketch of the Peyote Cult_, 3; _The Winnebago Tribe_, 388.

[132] Radin, _Crashing Thunder_, 176; Densmore, _The Peyote Cult_.

[133] Wissler, _The American Indian_, 189: “One prominent feature of Nahua life was the elaboration of the moral lecture. In the Pueblo region of the Rio Grande the chiefs and head men were given to daily moral lectures.... Perhaps we are again dealing with a general characteristic of New World society.” Cf. the Tamaulipecan harangue (Prieto, _Historia y Estadistica_, 123-24).