Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-11-05

Gus temples and shrines at which they
worship.
They spend three or four days at the
"hikulf' grounds and then consume about
twenty-three days the hOmeward trip,
so that by the time they get back they have
wasted over forty days on the pilgrimage.
But that is only the beginning. When
they are back in their own country, they
have to spend many weeks getting ready
for the great "hikuli' feast. They must
hunt deer until they have got scores of
carcases on which to gorge. They are not
able to get ready for the feast until De-
cember or January, and the feast lasts for
a week or two. 1t can easily be seen that
the tribe is unable to do any serious work
from May until the following February, ex-
cept for a brief period in August. 1t is
puzzle how they manage to live
From the time they set out to fetch the
'hikuli'' until the feast is over they are
under a religious obligation to eat no salt
and to abstain from washing or bathing.
Used as an Intoxicant.
A drink is made from the 'hikuli" and
1t is also cut up into strips and eaten.
Taken in either form. it has very strange
effect upon man. 1t is exhilarating and
refreshing In a most marked degree. 1t en-
ables a man to take violent exercise with
out feeling the slightest fatigue. If he Is
walking, he seems to be pushed along; there
is no sense of effort. He feels drunk, and
staggers in his gait. and the balance of the
body is in no way disturbed.
Eating slices of the plant makes a man
feel merry, good-tempered and talkative-
in fact, he gets what topers call "a good
humored jag" Yet there are no effects
similar to those which come from over-in-
diligence in alcoholic drinks. Sometimes
however, the man who eats too many slices
has an attack of homicidal mania, in which
case he is promptly knocked down and tied
up until he RECEIVERS. The Huichols do not
believe this is the result of intemperance;
they say the man must have violated the
ordinance of abstention during the 'hikufi
seekng-he must have been guilty of the
hideous crime of washing himself
When Carl Lumholtz was in Mexico he
found that several of the Indian tribes
have strange customs of ''dispatchng the
dead" as he put it--that is TO say, laying
ghosts which they deemed likely to prove
troublesome. They have the idea that the
spirits of the dead trouble the living for
year after death, at least, unless they are
propitiated.
Propitiating the Dead
The Cora Indians. when making their
feasts for rain, always have a special altar
with food upon it for the dead. They think
the ghosts will break up the merry party
unless they do. When the Indians of north
err Mexico drink their native brandy, they
always throw few drops over their Shout
der, with the idea that they will sink into
the ground and appease the thirst of dead
and buried friends. Readers of Omar
Khayyam will recognize the belief:
That not a drop which from our lips we throw
For earth TO drink of but shall sink below
TO quench the fire of anguish In some ere
Once buried and forgotten long ago.
James Teit discovered some very interest,"
ing things during his recent researches
among the Thompson River Indians of
British Columbia He found rock paint
ing rudely daubed with many figures in red
ochre some recent and others of ancient
date. An old woman of the tribe named
Waxtko, interpreted the figures to him.
Preparing for Marriage.
She said that 1t was the custom for the
girls of the tribe to go into seclusion for a
season when they reached the age of ma
turity. and prepare themselves for the
serious business of life by long course
of prayers. sacrifices, and other religious
ceremonies While they were In retire.
ment. they drew these figures on the rock.
generation after generation adding to them