Virginia free press. (Charlestown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1832-1916, 1895-07-24
ODD INTOXICANTS.
THE NARCOTICS AND STIMU-
LANTS OF THE ABORIGINES.
Remarkable Effects Produced by the
Chewing of Cactus He~arts-Prim-
tive Fermented Drinks
The Maddening Mescal:
.T7HE Bureau of Ethnology has
forwarded to Johns Hopkins

TAIN species OF c3cI1 native 10 the In
dian Territory. These are eaten by
the Kiowas and other Southern prairie
tribes, producing an i~ntoxicant some
what like that of hasheesh. Used in
moderation they are a most powerful
tonic. Like the famous cocoa of Peru,
they check waste and so stimulate the
bodily activity as TO enable a man to
work hard without sleep for days to-
gether.
The Indians chew these cactus hearts
and swallow them. They induce a con
dition of exaltation. While under the
influence a man is lifted out of him
self, as it were. He is wide awake, yet
dreaming. The intellect is not cloud.
ed, but stimulated. But the most re-
marksble thing about this plant is
that lis peculiar effect is not followed
by any reaction.
At the same time it is neither q
narcotic nor an opiate. The southern
prairie Indians, with whom the eating
of the plant is a religion, regard it as
a cure for all diseases, especially foI
consumption. At their sacred festivals
they remain for days in the state Of
ecstasy described.
Experts at Johns Hopkins University
will obtain from the specimens fur
nished the active principle of the
plant. Thus 1t is expected that a new
medicine, valuable, perhaps, Tor many
remedial purposes, viii be added to
the pharmacopaeia.
DR.. Carl Lumholtz has recently dis
covered that four varieties of this cac-
tus are known to the aborigines in
northern Mexico. One giant kind is
regarded by them as their chief med
icine, being much more powerful than
the plant employed by the Kiowas.
They can drink any amount of corn
beer and this remedy Will take away
any i'll effects.
The plant is also pounded and
thrown into water to stuperfy fish.
This method of making fish drunk,
thus rendering their capture easy, is
much practised in some parts of the
southern Rocky Mountains. Certain
tribes in Arizona employ the common
yucca for the purpose. But the Zunis
never do this, because they worship
fishes. Everything pertaining to
water is sacred to them, by reason of
the value of the fluid in that aid re-
gion. They look with horror on a
fsh-eater as a god-eat.r-worse than a
cannibal.
The aborigines have long been
familiar with an immense number of
narcotics and stimulants. The Hoopahs
and other Indians in California smoke
Wild hemp. One o. two full inhala-
tions of it induces stupor, followed by
ecstasy. The Mojaves, Yumas, and
other tribes of Colorado and Arizona
chew the dried leaves of a plant re-
sembling the Eastern jimson weed,
which has a flower like a huge sweet
scented morning glory. The frenzy
induced by it is useful in religious
dances.
More than fifty species of plants pos
sessing narcotic properties of tobacco,
to which several of them are related,
are used by the Indians of California
and the Southwest. The Zunis vary
the effects of their tobacco by adding
to it different vegetable substances.
To lessen its strength, they utilize the
middle bark of the pine tree. To
make it stronger, they put with it wild
carrot seed or coriander seed. To rem
der it sweeter, they employ anise seed.
Many South American tribes make
an intoxicating drink by soaking corn
until it is soft, then chewing it and
ex~pectorating it into a bowl. The
liquor thus obtained is permitted to
ferment over night, when it is ready
for use. This is precisely the method
employed by the Polynesians In the
preparation Of the @-called 'kava. "
There are very few savages in the
world who do not know how to get
drunk, though distillation is a process
of modern civilized invention. Cap
tain Bourke, United States Army,
thinks that the ancient Mexicans knew
the still before the Spanish conquest.
On the other hand, the making of
fermented drinks has been understood
by the most primitive people from
prehistoric times all over the world.
African natives universally know how
to prepare drunk-preducing liquors
from such simple materials as the tops
of broom-corn, sugar-cane and cocoa
nut milk. The Esquimaux did not
know how to get drunk until the
whalers and fur traders from Europe
furnished them with rum. When
Columbus landed, no Indians were &C
quainted with alcoholic beverages
north of Mbxieo.
The Apaehes OF southern Arizona,
who are the most murderous and IN
tamable of all North American abort
cines, make a terrific whisky from the
sap of a small species of cactus. They
cut out the hearts of the plants, re-
sembling little cabbages, and in the
cup-shaped receptacles left behind the
sap aeeumulates. From this they dis
til the famous ''mescal," which drives
those who drink it to sheer madness.
Probably the most primitive method
of distillingi is practised by the Indians
of Alaska, whose apparatus for the pur-
pose consists of nothing more elabor-
ate than two tin cans and a tube of the
kind of seaweed known as giant
kelp." The tube is buried in snow to
keep it cool. Molasses furnishes the
raw material.
Leaves of the cocoa plant, which, as
has been said, somewhat resembles in
its properties the cactus of the south
ern prairie Indians, are always found
buried with the ancient mummies OF
Peru. They are supposed to give com
fort and strength to the dead. Many