Part 20

[14] The ilex “black drink” is Catawba (_Handbook of the American Indians_, 1:150a, 2:1000-1001); Alibamu (Forster, _Bossu_, 254, 261, 294, 354-55); Creek (Swanton, _Social Organization and Social Usages_, 307, 445; Adair, in Swanton, _Social and Religious Beliefs_, 265; Speck, _The Creek Indians_, 110, 117-18, 134; Bartram, _Travels_, 449, 507), both Taskigi and Mikasuki; Cherokee (Bartram, _Travels_, 357); Chickasaw (Swanton, _Social and Religious Beliefs_, 240); Koasati (Paz, _Koasati Field Notes_); Yuchi (Speck, _Ethnology of the Yuchi_, 122-24, 135); Natchez (Charlevoix, _Histoire de l’Isle_, 166; du Pratz, _Histoire_, 2:46, 3:13); Atakapa (Forster, _Bossu_, 1:354-55), Chitamacha (Gatschet, in Swadesh, _Chitamacha Texts_) and Karankawa (Oliver, in Gatschet, _The Karankawa Indians_, 18-19). Also in Florida (de Laudoniére, in Lewin, _Phantastica_, 279; Safford, _Narcotic Plants_, 417; Romans, _A Concise Natural History_, 94), and also possibly in Virginia (Beverly, _History of Virginia_, 175-80; Ribault [1666], Dominique de Gourages [1567], McCullough, Le Moyne—all in Havard, _Drink Plants_, 41-42; Lawson, _History of Carolina_, 380-82 [1860 ed.]; Adair, _The History of the American Indian_, 108). A similar emetic rite is also found among the “Cutalchich” of Texas (Cabeza de Vaca, in Safford, _Narcotic Plants_, 416-17), the Tainan or Greater Antilles Arawak (Gower, _The Northern and Southern Affiliations_, 39-40), the Lesser Antilles Carib and Guiana (Dixon [R. B.], _Some Aspects_, 1-12), the Amazon Basin (Wissler, _The American Indian_, 213), Jivaro and Canelo of Ecuado (Karsten, in Lewin, _Phantastica_, 279-81; Safford, _Narcotic Plants_, 413, 416); Guarani of Northern Bolivia (Safford, op. cit., 413; Spruce, _Notes of a Botanist_, 2:419-20). See also Thurnwald, _Economics_, 65; Harrington, _Cuba Before Columbus_, 295, 388-89; Spier, _Yuman Tribes_, 181; _Handbook of the American Indians_, 2:32a, 145-46; Sapir, _Kaibab-Paiute_. An interestingly parallel distribution (which may have historical relevance) is that of fish and arrow poisons. Fish poisons are reported for northeastern South America, the Orinoco valley, the upper Amazon, the Antillean Carib; the Tarahumari, Acaxee, Opata and in California; the Catawba, Taskigi Creek, Cherokee, Koasati, Yuchi and Iroquois (cf. the blow-gun of the Creek, Cherokee, Choctaw, Iroquois, Yuchi, central Carib, Florida Key-dwellers, natives of Hispaniola and of northeastern South America). Arrow poisons are found in Sonora, Central America, the Guianas, the Antilles (Carib), Florida Arawak (?) and, in historic times, the Tarahumari, as well as in South America. The Opata, curiously, used yerba de fleche to poison deer at water-holes. Beals (_Comparative Ethnology_, 115, 193) also lists poison arrows for the Southern Diegueño, Chumash, Cahuilla, Yavapai, Havasupai, Navaho, Western Apache, Lipan, Natchez (?), Seri, Mixtec and in Sinaloa and Culiacan. Spier adds the Blackfoot and perhaps other Plains groups to this list. The group with poison arrows south of the Great Lakes (_Jesuit Relations_, 8:302, in Gower, 21) one would guess is Iroquois.

[15] We ignore for our purposes the South American area of the use of datura, though it is surely connected with the Mexican culturally and historically, as well as the South American use of coca, tobacco, cohoba snuff (_Piptadenia peregrina_), guarana (_Paullinia cupana_ or _P. sorbilis_), chocolatl (_Theobroma cacao_), aya-huasca (_Banisteria caapi_) and yajé (_Haemadictyon Amazonicum_ Spruce). Many of the uses of these plants in war, prophesying, divination, ordeals, and doctoring are strikingly similar to the Mexican uses of marihuana, datura, teo-nanacatl and peyote.

[16] The sources for these are cited in Gayton, _The Narcotic Plant Datura_, a manuscript to which I am much indebted.

[17] Note the parallel uses of datura in South America found among the Inca, Matacuna, Chancay, Sipibo, Cocoma, Omagua, Jivaro, Canelo, Quijo, Zaparo, Guanes (Guanuco?), Chibcha and in Darien (after Gayton). The “wysoccan” used by the Pamunky (Beverly, _History of Virginia_, 2:24) is said to be a datura (Safford, _Daturas_, 557-58); the sporadic use as a medicament in Jamaica (Beckwith, _Notes on Jamaica_, 9, note 5, 28) may not be aboriginal.

[18] The writer hopes in due time to publish further data on New World narcotics.

[19] De la Serna, in Safford, _Daturas_, 551, Arlegui, _Crónica_, 144; Rouhier, _Monographie_, 331.

[20] Gerste, _Notes sur la médicine_, 51. This may be the source of Reko’s erroneous teo-nanacatl etymology.

[21] Preuss, _Nayarit-Expedition_, 1:231.

[22] Diguet, _Le Peyote et son Usage_, 21, note 1.

[23] Mason, _Tepecano Prayers_, 138, 139, 142, 143. Cf. the supposed aphrodisiac effects of peyote, teo-nanacatl, and marihuana.

[24] Russell, _The Pima_, 299-300. Cf. sunami of the Tarahumari for deer hunting, and the mescal bean for buffalo hunting.

[25] Hrdlička, _Physiological and Medical Observations_, 28; cf. _Handbook of the American Indians_, 2:837b.

[26] Bourke, _The Medicine-Men_, 455.

[27] Spier, _Havasupai_, 249, 269.

[28] Stevenson, _Ethnobotany of the Zuñi_, 46, 47, 88; _The Zuñi Indians_, 385; Parsons, _A Zuñi Detective_, 168-70. Every single instance in this paragraph finds parallels in the uses of peyote: the powdering of the root, rain-getting, discovery of robbers, as an anodyne, for wounds, etc., differentiation in sex and communication with the dead. Note also in connection with rain-making the “water-bird” of peyotism.

[29] Lumholtz, _Unknown Mexico_, 1:4; _The American Cave-Dwellers_, 389; cf. the running amuck with peyote.

[30] Robbins _et alii_, _Ethnobotany of the Tewa_, 55, note 1.

[31] References from Gayton, _The Narcotic Plant Datura_.

[32] Cf. the use of peyote formerly only by adult warriors.

[33] Cf. the group use of marihuana, teo-nanacatl and peyote in Mexico.

[34] Again compare peyote, particularly in the Plains.

[35] Kroeber (_Handbook_ 462, 589, 593, 609, 613-14) lists tribes who may lack it. See also Kroeber, _Anthropology_, 309-311.

[36] Summarized from Gayton, citing W. D. Strong, _Aboriginal Society_.

[37] Cf. the preparation of peyote in Mexico.

[38] Summarized from Gayton.

[39] Cf. this and the following elements with peyote usages.

[40] Cf. the Mexican use of peyote.

APPENDIX 5: CHEMISTRY OF PEYOTE

Alkaloids are found in a number of cacti: _Cereus peruvianus_, _C. pecten aboriginum_, _Pilocereus sargentianus_ Orcutt, _Phyllocactus ackermanii_, _P. russelianus_, _Echinocereus mamillosus_, _Mammillaria cirrhifera_, _M. uberiformis_, _M. centricirrha_, _Anhalonium prismaticum_, _A. fissuratum_,[1] and _Lophophora williamsii_. _Lophophora_ in its mature state, however, is notable for the number of alkaloids which it contains, nine being known at present.

The long and hotly-disputed botanical question of _Anhalonium williamsii_ versus _A. lewinii_, beyond its ethnographic significance in accounting the plants “male” and “female,” has a chemical aspect for a time obscuring their botanical identity. _A. williamsii_ (young specimens of _Lophophora_) contains only the alkaloid Pellotine,[2] while _A. lewinii_ (the mature _Lophophora_) contains at least nine, as follows:[3] Anhaline (C₁₀H₁₅ON), Anhalamine (C₁₁H₁₅O₃N), Mescaline (C₁₁H₁₇O₃N), Anhalonidine (C₁₂H₁₇O₃N), Anhalonine (C₁₂H₁₅O₃N), Lophophorine (C₁₃H₁₇O₃N), Pellotine (C₁₃H₁₉O₃N), Anhalinine and Anhalidine. Lophophorine is an oily colorless liquid; mescaline crystallizes only in the presence of atmospheric CO₂; and anhalonidine crystallizes imperfectly; the rest are crystalline. Their physiological activity appears to increase with their chemical complexity.[4]

Hordenine was first isolated from _A. fissuratum_ by Heffter in 1894 and shown to be identical with Späth’s anhaline from _Lophophora_ in 1920; Heffter isolated pellotine in 1894, mescaline, anhalonidine, anhalonine and lophophorine in 1896, Kauder adding anhalamine in 1899. Capellman collaborated with Heffter on mescaline in 1905. If Heffter first isolated the _Lophophora_ alkaloids, Späth is to be largely credited with establishing their chemical constitution and synthesizing them: mescaline in 1920, anhalamine in 1921, and anhalonidine and pellotine in 1922. Röder in 1922 and Gangl in 1923 collaborated in establishing the chemical constitution of others of the alkaloids.[5]

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Tschirsch, _Handbuch_, 680.

[2] Henry (T. A.), _The Plant Alkaloids_, 194; Moureu, _Review_, 519; Heffter, _Ueber zwei Cacteenalkaloïde_, 2977; _Ueber Pellote_, 309 ff.; Späth, _Über die Anhalonium_; I, _Anhalin und Mezcalin_, 129; Kunkel, _Handbuch_, 836; Schumann, _Über giftige Kakteen_, 106.

[3] Henry (T. A.), _loc. cit._ The more recently discovered anhalinine and anhalidine are cited from Schultes, _Peyote and Plants Used_, 134.

[4] Rouhier, _Monographie_, 196, 201, 205, 212.

[5] Henry (T. A.), _The Plant Alkaloids_, 194-95; Moureu, _Review_, 520; Heffter, _Ueber zwei Cacteenalkaloïde_, 2976; _Ueber Pellote_, 69-73; Späth, _Ueber die Anhalonium_; I, _Anhalin und Mezcalin_, 129, 138-39; II, _Die Konstitution_, 97, 263. Anhalonine has been found in _A. jourdanianum_ (Henry, _op. cit._, 194; Heffter, _Ueber Pellote_, 427) which is identical with _Lophophora_. See Heffter, _Ueber zwei Cacteenalkaloïde_, 2976-77, also vols. 29:216, 223-25, 227; 34:3005, 3008, 3013; Heffter and Capellman, _Versuch zur Synthese_, 38:3634-40; Kauder, _Über Alkaloide_, 190-98. Späth, with Gangl and Röder, _Über de Anhalonium_, IV, VI; Kunkel, _Handbuch_, 836.

APPENDIX 6: PHYSIOLOGY OF PEYOTE

ACTION OF THE INDIVIDUAL ALKALOIDS OF LOPHOPHORA WILLIAMSII

Since the alkaloids of peyote fall into two classes with regard to physiological action, the strychnine-like (increased reflex-irritability to the point of tetanus) and the morphine-like (sedative-soporific) and since there are important ethnographic considerations concerning the supposed “sex” of peyote, we discuss the action of each alkaloid before characterizing pan-peyotl physiologically. The two groups are somewhat antagonistic in action; ethnographic indications seem to point to the earlier action of the strychnine-like alkaloids, and a delayed reaction of the morphine-like. However, the size of the dose and the continued ingestion of buttons during the night cause variations in the length of the different periods of intoxication.

The peyote-alkaloids might be arranged in a scale, with mescaline at the morphine-like extreme and lophophorine at the other: (morphine-like) mescaline, peyotline, anhaline, anhalamine, anhalonidine, anhalonine, lophophorine (strychnine-like). Peyotline, however, has a variable effect on different individuals, while anhalonine has been accounted of the morphine-like group by Rouhier.[1] The color-visions so conspicuous in peyote-intoxication are chiefly produced by mescaline.[2] Lophophorine is the most toxic.[3] Physiologically the effects of the individual alkaloids are:[4]

_Mescaline_: slowing of pulse, slight headache, sensation of heaviness in the limbs lasting one to several hours; heavier doses, feeling of discomfort and fullness of stomach (even when injected intravenously) in addition to the above symptoms; still heavier doses, accentuation of symptoms and appearance of color-visions.

_Peyotline_: in about an hour reduces the pulse approximately one-quarter the normal number of beats; two hours after ingestion, heaviness of eyelids, sensation of fatigue, aversion to all physical or mental effort; has no marked analgesic action but is a fairly good sedative and has a very appreciable hypnotic and anodyne action.

_Anhaline_ [= hordenine]:[5] exercises a paralyzing effect on the central nervous system.

_Anhalamine_: this has not been adequately studied physiologically. Nor have _Anhalinine_ and _Anhalidine_.

_Anhalonidine_: only slight sleepiness and dull sensation in head; pulse not affected.

_Anhalonine_: produces no sensible effect, except perhaps a slight sleepiness.

_Lophophorine_: the most toxic, has no narcotic action; a quarter-hour after ingestion an accentuated sickening feeling in the back of the head, with hotness and blushing of face, slight pulse diminution; symptoms disappear after 40 minutes.

“In short,” says Rouhier,[6] “save for anhalonidine which, in strong doses, provokes in the frog paralysis of the motor nerve-ends (which is not observed otherwise in mammals), the alkaloids of peyote act on the central nervous system.... [Mescaline] acts on the brain, which it paralyzes. [Lophophorine] is antagonistic in action to this, augmenting the irritability of the spinal cord and its elongations.... Peyotline, anhalonine and anhalonidine hold a middle place between the two preceding. They produce in the frog a soporific effect (due to the paralysis of the brain or central nervous system), followed by an effect of tetanus. Anhalonidine and anhalonine have identical physiological effects. The paralyzing effect of the former is of long duration. That of the second is much reduced and is lacking in warm-blooded animals.”

ACTION OF PAN-PEYOTL

The native use of peyote, however, involves of course the whole series of alkaloids, and we must discuss the physiological effect of pan-peyotl preparations. Since antagonistic alkaloids are at work, it is not surprising to find several stages of physiological action with the whole plant. Dixon writes:[7]

The action may be divided into a preliminary stage and a stage of intoxication. In the former there is excitement, a feeling of exhilaration, and diminished kinaesthetic sensations, performances involving effort being hardly noticed; the face is flushed, and the pupils dilated; there is a tendency to talkativeness, which may become wandering later, when the patient begins to feel “lightheaded.”

This stage quickly passes away, and is followed by one of intoxication, in which there is a great inclination to lie down, although there is never any tendency to sleep. The pupils are now widely dilated, but act sluggishly to light. On attempting to walk, the gait closely resembles that in alcoholic intoxication, and in all bodily movements requiring precision, the incoördination is evident. The body is generally in a tremulous condition, the tremors showing well when the attention is fixed on anything held in the hand. Reflexes over the whole body are much increased, including the skin reflexes, although there is considerable blunting of painful and tactile sensation. Twitching of muscles occurs in various parts of the body, especially noticeable in the face, and there is a curious feeling as if the face, lips, tongue, etc., were much swollen.

As in _cannabis indica_, time is over-estimated, possibly as a result of the rapid flow of ideas[8] and the inability to fix the attention. Perception of space is also modified,[9] on one occasion giving the impression that the ground sloped away in all directions.

Perception may be considerably delayed; for example, one may look at a person one knows well, and it is only after scanning his features for what appears to the experimenter a considerable time, that recognition occurs;[10] it is possible, however, that this may be explained by the increased time-relation. The attention cannot be fixed, as the least stimulus is sufficient to alter the train of thought; thus it was found impossible to fix the attention on a book, and a subsequent examination of notes attempted during intoxication showed incoördination both as regards language and writing.

On two occasions when deeply under the influence of the drug, there was an indescribable feeling of dual existence; thus after sitting with closed eyes subjectively examining the color visions, on suddenly opening them for a brief space one seems to be a different self, as on waking from a dream we pass into a different world from that in which we have been. This may be to some extent comparable to the rhythmical rise and fall of the “physical waves” in Indian hemp intoxication.[11]

But by far the most remarkable of these subjective phenomena are the sensory hallucinations,[12] especially visual. These arise gradually, and are at first only seen with closed eyes.... The visions rapidly become more marked, until on closing the eyes a regular kaleidoscopic play of colours can be seen with either eye, precisely the same; hence the condition must be central.

These colours may assume all kinds of fantastic shapes; they are never still, but constantly in motion, sometimes in a circular or to-and-fro manner, but more generally there is a kind of pulsation somewhat similar to that in the cinematograph.[13]

Both native visions and white observations testify abundantly to the phenomena of synaesthesis, or the perception of the data of one sense in terms of another. Rouhier figures a painting made by an experimenter in which the sound of a bell is seen as a surréaliste aggregate of flowing, pulsating lines; and a subject of Havelock Ellis had a “curious sensation of tasting colors.” Crichtly mentions a color-taste synaesthesia also.[14] All these phenomena are physiological constants, as indicated by comparison of native visions with white experimenters’ observations.

After visual hallucinations far the commonest are auditory ones. The writer, with a number of other observers, has noted the preternatural resonance, hollowness, discreteness and far-away quality of one’s own voice; if vocal disfunction were involved one would expect a raising of pitch here, hence it is probably auditory. On this point Dixon bears critical evidence:[15]

The whole effect of the sound of the piano was most curious and delightful, the whole air being filled with music, each note of which seemed to arrange itself around a medley of other notes which appeared to me to be surrounded by a halo of colour pulsating to the music. Nasal hyperaesthesia was also present, though less evident than either the visual or auditory phenomena.

The more strictly physiological effects may be summed up as follows:[16]

_Skin_: no local irritation on injection of pan-peyotl; one observer reports partial skin anaesthesia, but this does not affect cutaneous reflex-excitability, which is much increased.

_Respiration_: moderate amounts in Rana esculens produce no effect, but in toxic doses respiration becomes quicker and shallower, death ultimately occurring from paralysis of the respiratory center. In man respiration is ordinarily not affected, but some observers report shallower and more rapid breathing with “occasional long-drawn and deep sighs, and a painful feeling of suffocation.” Still another observer states that “respiration slows immediately after injection but is not influenced in a durable manner.”[17]

_Circulation_: in the frog a marked effect on heart-beat: diminished rapidity, but increased duration; in the dog a small dose causes a slight rise in pressure, stronger doses considerable depression on the heart and vasodilation; in the cat mescaline causes initial lower pressure, slowly rising, and with a larger dose a greater initial fall, more marked slowing in beat, with variable promptness in recovery. In man .05 gr. of lophophorine causes marked slowing of beat but a rise in pressure and force. An ordinary dose of four “buttons” produces a 15-25% fall in the number of beats, with a slow recovery from a sharp drop unless more are eaten. But death in guinea pigs and frogs comes through paralysis of respiration, not of the heart, since in Wiley’s experiments it would beat 15-20 minutes after the death of the animal. “All this evidence points to the conclusion that the main effect of these alkaloids is a direct one on cardiac muscle ... [since] very large doses, quite non-therapeutic in amount, are ... required before the colour visions ... are observed.”

_Salivation_: increased in the cat, whether administered by mouth or subcutaneously; the alkaloids are secreted in the saliva (one cc. of cat saliva produces the same symptoms in a frog); in man salivation is somewhat increased.

_Digestive system_: in small doses pan-peyotl is constipating, according to some. In the cat large doses produce diarrhea and blood in the feces. In man and the quadrupeds all sensations of hunger are suppressed or absent during the period of intoxication, but the appetite returns somewhat increased after recovery; on first injection or ingestion there is a marked nausea and feeling of fullness in the stomach which passes off, without, however, hunger arising.

_Blood, secretions, etc._: no increase in the coagulability of the blood; pancreatic and biliary secretions unaffected.

_Kidneys_: peyote alkaloids chiefly excreted by the kidneys; experiments show increased renal blood supply, and pan-peyotl is markedly diuretic.

_Eyes_: in the later stages of intoxication the pupils are widely dilated, accompanied by lack of accommodation and consequent photophobia.

_Nervous system_: sizeable doses produce their most marked effect on the nervous system: wakefulness (despite cardiac and muscular depression), exaggeration of all reflexes (due to selective action on the spinal cord). A frog injected with pan-peyotl became “exceedingly susceptible to stimuli, until even the slightest touch or even a breath of cold air is sufficient to give rise to a little nervous explosion, with the resulting contraction of several muscles”; the frog became rigid in tetanus as the reflexes degenerated. Convulsions are produced in the dog with ⅕ cc. of pan-peyotl, sometimes light, sometimes as violent as those of strychnine; death in convulsions with 1 cc. per kilogram of body weight. Pan-peyotl immediately kills a rabbit with a dose of 2 cc. per kilogram of body weight, injected intravenously; 2 cc. injected in the lymphatic sac paralyzes a frog. An injected cat shows “ataxic gait, with jerky and stiff movements”—a staccato effect in an animal notable for the legato quality of its movements—with “irregular twitchings of muscles over the whole body.” The same effects, less marked because of relatively smaller doses, appear in man as in other mammals. Extraordinary doses cause qualitatively and quantitatively the same reactions: the writer has seen a child, quite ill and suffering from malnutrition, brought very fretful into a peyote meeting and fed peyote “tea” until rigid in strychnine-like tetanic opisthotonos.