THE SACRIFICE OF THE DOG A SUBSTITUTION FOR HUMAN SACRIFICE.
It would add much to the bulk of this chapter to show that the dog has almost invariably been employed as a substitute for man in sacrifice. Other animals have performed the same vicarious office, but none to the same extent, especially among the more savage races. To the American Indians and other peoples of a corresponding stage of development, the substitution presents no logical incongruity. Their religious conceptions are so strongly tinged with zoolatry that the assignment of animals to the rôle of deities or of victims is the most natural thing in the world; but their belief is not limited to the idea that the animal is sacred; it comprehends, additionally, a settled appreciation of the fact that lycanthropy is possible, and that the medicine-men possess the power of transforming men into animals or animals into men. Such a belief was expressed to the writer in the most forcible way, in the village of Zuñi, in 1881. The Indians were engaged in some one of their countless dances and ceremonies (and possibly not very far from the time of the urine dance), when the dancers seized a small dog and tore it limb from limb, venting upon it every torture that savage spite and malignity could devise. The explanation given was that the hapless cur was a “Navajo,” a tribe to which the Zuñis have been spasmodically hostile for generations, and from whose ranks the fortunes of war must have enabled them to drag an occasional captive to be put to the torture and sacrificed.
Mrs. Eastman describes the “Dog Dance” of the Sioux, in which the dogs represented Chippewas, and had their hearts eaten raw by the Sioux.
XI.
POISONOUS MUSHROOMS USED IN UR-ORGIES.
The Indians in and around Cape Flattery, on the Pacific coast of British North America, retain the urine dance in an unusually repulsive form. As was learned from Mr. Kennard, U.S. Coast Survey, whom the writer had the pleasure of meeting in Washington, D.C., in 1886, the medicine men distil, from potatoes and other ingredients, a vile liquor, which has an irritating and exciting effect upon the kidneys and bladder. Each one who has partaken of this dish immediately urinates and passes the result to his next neighbor, who drinks. The effect is as above, and likewise a temporary insanity or delirium, during which all sorts of mad capers are carried on. The last man who quaffs the poison, distilled through the persons of five or six comrades, is so completely overcome that he falls in a dead stupor.
Precisely the same use of a poisonous fungus has been described among the natives of the Pacific coast of Siberia, according to the learned Dr. J. W. Kingsley (of Brome Hall, Scole, England). Such a rite is outlined by Schultze. “The Shamans of Siberia drink a decoction of toad-stools or the urine of those who have become narcotized by that plant.”—(Schultze, “Fetichism,” New York, 1885, p. 52.)
The Ur-Orgy of the natives of Siberia should be found fully described by explorers in the employ of the Russian Government. Application was accordingly made by the author to the Hon. Lambert Tree, the American Minister at the Court of St. Petersburgh, who evinced a warm interest in the work of unearthing from the Imperial archives all that bore upon the use of the mushroom as a urino-intoxicant. Unfortunately, the official term of Mr. Tree having expired, no information was obtained from him in time for incorporation in these pages.
Acknowledgment is due in this connection to Mr. Wurtz, the American Chargé d’Affaires at St. Petersburgh, as well as to his Excellency the Russian Minister of Public Instruction, for courteous interest manifested in the investigations made necessary by the amplification of the original pamphlet.
Conferences were also had with his Excellency the Chinese Minister and with Dr. H. T. Allen, Secretary of the Corean Legation, in Washington, but beyond developing the fact that in the minor medicine of those countries resort was still had to excrementitious curatives, the information deduced was meagre and unimportant.
Dependence was therefore necessarily placed upon the accounts of American or English explorers of undisputed authority.
George Kennan describes a wedding which he saw in one of the villages of Kamtchatka: “After the conclusion of the ceremony we removed to an adjacent tent, and were surprised as we came out into the open air to see three or four Koraks shouting and reeling in an advanced stage of intoxication,—celebrating, I suppose, the happy wedding which had just transpired. I knew that there was not a drop of alcoholic liquor in all Northern Kamtchatka, nor, so far as I knew, anything from which it could be made, and it was a mystery to me how they had succeeded in becoming so suddenly, thoroughly, hopelessly, undeniably drunk. Even Ross Browne’s beloved Washoe, with its ‘howling wilderness’ saloons, could not have turned out more creditable specimens of intoxicated humanity than those before us.
“The exciting agent, whatever it might be, was certainly as quick in its operation and as effective in its results as any ‘tanglefoot’ or ‘bottled lightning’ known to modern civilization.
“Upon inquiry, we learned to our astonishment that they had been eating a species of the plant vulgarly known as ‘toadstool.’ There is a peculiar fungus of this class in Siberia, known to the natives as ‘muk-a-moor,’ and as it possesses active intoxicating properties, it is used as a stimulant by nearly all the Siberian tribes.
“Taken in large doses, it is a violent narcotic poison, but in small doses it produces all the effects of alcoholic liquor.
“Its habitual use, however, completely shatters the nervous system, and its sale by Russian traders to the natives has consequently been made a penal offence by the Russian law. In spite of all prohibitions the trade is still secretly carried on, and I have seen twenty dollars’ worth of furs bought with a single fungus.
“The Koraks would gather it for themselves, but it requires the shelter of timber for its growth, and is not to be found on the barren steppes over which they wander; so that they are obliged for the most part to buy it at enormous prices from the Russian traders. It may sound strangely to American ears, but the invitation which a convivial Korak extends to his passing friend is not ‘Come in and have a drink,’ but ‘Won’t you come in and take a toadstool?’—not a very alluring proposal perhaps to a civilized toper, but one which has a magical effect upon a dissipated Korak. As the supply of these toadstools is by no means equal to the demand, Korak ingenuity has been greatly exercised in the endeavor to economize the precious stimulant and make it go as far as possible.
“Sometimes in the course of human events it becomes imperatively necessary that a whole band should get drunk together, and they have only one toadstool to do it with. For a description of the manner in which this band gets drunk collectively and individually upon one fungus, and keeps drunk for a week, the curious reader is referred to Goldsmith’s ‘A Citizen of the World,’ Letter 32.
“It is but just to say, however, that this horrible practice is almost entirely confined to the settled Koraks of Penzshink Gulf,—the lowest, most degraded portion of the whole tribe. It may prevail to a limited extent among the wandering natives, but I never heard of more than one such instance outside the Penzshink Gulf settlements.”—(“Tent Life in Siberia,” George Kennan, New York and London, 1887, pp. 202-204.)
Oliver Goldsmith speaks of “a curious custom” among “the Tartars of Koraki.... The Russians who trade with them carry thither a kind of mushroom.... These mushrooms the rich Tartars lay up in large quantities for the winter; and when a nobleman makes a mushroom feast all the neighbors around are invited. The mushrooms are prepared by boiling, by which the water acquires an intoxicating quality, and is a sort of drink which the Tartars prize beyond all other. When the nobility and ladies are assembled, and the ceremonies usual between people of distinction over, the mushroom broth goes freely round, and they laugh, talk double-entendres, grow fuddled, and become excellent company. The poorer sort, who love mushroom broth to distraction as well as the rich, but cannot afford it at first hand, post themselves on these occasions round the huts of the rich, and watch the opportunity of the ladies and gentlemen as they come down to pass their liquor, and holding a wooden bowl, catch the delicious fluid, very little altered by filtration, being still strongly tinctured with the intoxicating quality. Of this they drink with the utmost satisfaction, and thus they get as drunk and as jovial as their betters.
“‘Happy nobility!’ cried my companion, ‘who can fear no diminution of respect unless seized with strangury, and who when drunk are most useful! Though we have not this custom among us, I foresee that if it were introduced, we might have many a toad-eater in England ready to drink from the wooden bowl on these occasions, and to praise the flavor of his lordship’s liquor. As we have different classes of gentry, who knows but we may see a lord holding the bowl to the minister, a knight holding it to his lordship, and a simple squire drinking it double-distilled from the loins of knighthood?’”—(Oliver Goldsmith, “Letters from a Citizen of the World,” No. 32. This is based upon Philip Van Stralenburgh’s “Histori-Geographical Description of the North and Eastern Part of Europe and Asia,” London, 1736, p. 397.)
“The Amanita muscaria possesses an intoxicating property, and is employed by Northern nations as an inebriant. The following is the account of Langsdorf, as given by Greville:—
“This variety of Amanita muscaria is used by the inhabitants of the northeastern parts of Asia in the same manner as wine, brandy, arrack, opium, etc., is by other nations. Such fungi are found most plentifully about Wischna, Kamtchatka, and Willowa Derecona, and are very abundant in some seasons, and scarce in others. They are collected in the hottest months, and hung up by a string to dry in the air; some dry themselves on the ground, and are said to be far more narcotic than those artificially preserved. Small, deep-colored specimens, deeply covered with warts, are also said to be more powerful than those of a larger size and paler color.
“The usual mode of taking the fungus is to roll it up like a bolus and swallow it without chewing, which the Kamtchkadales say would disorder the stomach.
“It is sometimes eaten fresh in soups and sauces, and then loses much of its intoxicating property. When steeped in the juice of the berries of the Vaccinum uliginosum, its effects are those of a strong wine. One large and two small fungi are a common dose to produce a pleasant intoxication for a whole day, particularly if water be drunk after it, which augments the narcotic principle.
“The desired effect comes in from one to two hours after taking the fungus. Giddiness and drunkenness result in the same manner as from wine or spirits; cheerful emotions of the mind are first produced, the countenance becomes flushed, involuntary words and actions follow, and sometimes at last an entire loss of consciousness. It renders some remarkably active, and proves highly stimulating to muscular exertion. By too large a dose violent spasmodic effects are produced. So very exciting to the nervous system in some individuals is this fungus that the effects are often very ludicrous. If a person under its influence wishes to step over a straw or a small stick, he takes a stride or a jump sufficient to clear the trunk of a tree. A talkative person cannot keep silence or secrets, and one fond of music is perpetually singing.
“The most singular effect of the Amanita is the influence it possesses over the urine. It is said that from time immemorial the inhabitants have known that the fungus imparts an intoxicating quality to that secretion, which continues for a considerable time after taking it. For instance, a man moderately intoxicated to-day will by the next morning have slept himself sober; but (as is the custom) by taking a cup of his urine he will be more powerfully intoxicated than he was the preceding day. It is therefore not uncommon for confirmed drunkards to preserve their urine as a precious liquor against a scarcity of the fungus.
“The intoxicating property of the urine is capable of being propagated, for every one who partakes of it has his urine similarly affected. Thus with a very few Amanitæ a party of drunkards may keep up their debauch for a week. Dr. Langsdorf mentions that by means of the second person taking the urine of the first, the third of the second, and so on, the intoxication may be propagated through five individuals.”—(English Cyclop., London, 1854, vol ii., “Natural History,” article “Fungi.” London: Bradbury and Evans.)
“They make feasts when one village entertains another, either upon account of a wedding, or having had a plentiful fishing or hunting. The landlords entertain their guests with great bowls of oponga, till they are all set a-vomiting; sometimes they use a liquor made of a large mushroom, with which the Russians kill flies. This they prepare with the juice of epilobium or French willow. The first symptom of a man being affected with this liquor is a trembling in all his joints, and in half an hour he begins to rave as if in a fever; and is either merry or melancholy mad according to his peculiar constitution. Some jump, dance, and sing; others weep and are in terrible agonies, a small hole appearing to them as a great pit, and a spoonful of water as a lake; but this is to be understood of those who take it to excess; for, taken in small quantity, it raises their spirits, and makes them brisk, courageous, and cheerful.
“It is observed whenever they have eaten of this plant, they maintain that whatever foolish things they did, they only obeyed the commands of the mushroom; however, the use of it is so dangerous that unless they were well looked after, it would be the destruction of numbers of them. The Kamtchadales do not much care to relate these drunken frolics, and perhaps the continual use of it renders it less dangerous to them. One of our Cossacks resolved to eat of this mushroom in order to surprise his comrades, and this he actually did; but it was with great difficulty they preserved his life. Another of the inhabitants of Kamtchatka, by the use of this mushroom, imagined that he was upon the brink of hell ready to be thrown in, and that the mushroom ordered him to fall on his knees and make a full confession of all the sins he could remember, which he did before a great number of his comrades, to their no small diversion. It is related that a soldier of the garrison, having eaten a little of this mushroom, walked a great way without any fatigue; but at last, having taken too great a quantity, he died.
“My interpreter drank some of this juice without knowing of it, and became so mad that it was with difficulty we kept him from ripping open his belly, being, as he said, ordered to do so by the mushroom.
“The Kamtchadales and the Koreki eat of it when they resolve to murder anybody; and it is in such esteem among the Koreki that they do not allow any one that is drunk with it to make water upon the ground, but they give him a vessel to save his urine in, which they drink; and it has the same effect as the mushroom itself.
“None of this mushroom grows in their country, so that they are obliged to purchase it of the Kamtchadales. Three or four of them are a moderate dose, but when they want to get drunk they take ten. The women never use it, so that all their merriment consists in jesting, dancing, and singing.”—(“The History of Kamtchatka and the Kurile Islands,” by James Grieve, M.D., Gloucester, England, 1764, pp. 207-209.)
“I do not think that the urine would keep very long, and decomposition would destroy the Amanitine, which I believe to be the intoxicating principle. If I remember aright, it has been obtained as an alkaloid.”—(Personal letter from Dr. J. W. Kingsley, Cambridge, England, dated Aug. 18, 1888.)
“If the Yakut was a good and loving spouse, he would go directly home and eject the contents of his stomach into a vessel of water, which then he placed out of doors to cool and collect; and from the rich, floating vomit his wife and children would afterwards enjoy a hearty meal. The lucky possessor of a stomach full of Vodki may, in a benevolent mood, similarly dispose of a part of his repletion, minus the water, and away to the Eastward, among the Tchuchees, families are often regaled even to inebriation with the natural fluid discharge from the bodies of fortunate tipplers.... Saving the natives themselves it is their most disgusting institution, and if any Christian missionary be earnestly seeking a fresh field to labor in, I can assure him that no soil is more desperately in need of cultivation than the Tchuchee Country.”—(“In the Lena Delta,” George W. Melville, Chief Engineer, U. S. Navy, Boston, Massachusetts, 1885, page 318.)
“Amanita muscaria has been employed as fly-poison, whence its vulgar name. M. Poquet states that climate does not modify its poisonous qualities. The Czar Alexis died from eating it, yet the Kamtchatkans eat it, or are said to do so, as also the Russians. In Siberia, it is used as an intoxicating agent. Cook says it is taken as a bolus, and that its effects combine those produced by alcohol and haschish. The property is imparted to the fluid secretion (urine) of rendering it intoxicating, which property it retains for a considerable time. A man, having been intoxicated on one day and slept himself sober the next, will, by drinking this liquor to the extent of about a cupful, become as much intoxicated as he was before.... Urine is preserved in Siberia to this end.... The intoxicating property may be communicated to any person who partakes ... to the third, fourth, and even fifth distillation.”—(M. C. Cook, “British Fungi,” London, 1882, pp. 21, 22.)
Henry Lamsdell (“Through Siberia,” London, 1882, vol. ii. p. 645) describes the “fly agaric.” He says that it is used by the Koraks to produce intoxication. “So powerful is the fungus that the native who eats it remains drunk for several days; and by a process too disgusting to be described, half a dozen individuals may be successively intoxicated by the effects of a single mushroom, each in a less degree than his predecessor.”
“The Koraks prepare the ‘muk-a-moor’ by steeping it. In a few minutes the fortunate ones get thoroughly intoxicated, and imbibe to such an extent that they are forced to relieve themselves of the superfluity, on which occasions the poorer people stand prepared with bowls to catch the liquid, which they quaff, and, in turn, become intoxicated. In this manner, a whole settlement will sometimes get drunk from liquor consumed by one individual.”—(Richard J. Bush, “Reindeer, Dogs and Snow-Shoes,” London, no date, p. 357.)
Salverte gives two pages to a description of the effects of the “fly agaric” or “mucha-more” of the Russians; he shows how it leads men to the commission of murder, suicide, and other excesses, but makes no allusion to the drinking of urine, although he quotes from Gmelin, Krachenninikof and Beniowski, all of whom must have had some acquaintance with its peculiar properties. According to Salverte the use of this fungus might well be referred to the category of Sacred Intoxicants.—(See “Philosophy of Magic,” Eusèbe Salverte, New York, 1862, vol. ii. pp. 19, 20.)
“Before the conquest, they seldom used anything for drink but water, but when they made merry they drank water which had stood for some time upon mushrooms; but of this more hereafter.”—(“History of Kamtchatka and the Kurile Islands,” James Grieve, M. D., Gloucester, England, 1764, p. 195.)
See previous citation from the same author.
A mere reference to the trade carried on by the Russians and Kamtchadales with the Koraks in Agaricus muscarius is to be found in “Langsdorf’s Voyages,” London, 1814, vol. ii. p. 318. “It is said that the sort of mushroom which they procure from Kamtchadales is preferred by them as a means of exhilaration or intoxication to brandy.” (Idem, p. 320.) He adds: “Some remarks of mine upon this subject will be found in the Annals of the Society for promoting the Knowledge of Natural History.”—(Idem, p. 321.)
“The use of the intoxicating fungus in Siberia, and that of the urine flavored by it, is mentioned in Steller’s ‘History of Kamtchatka,’ which is, I believe, the earliest and best authority in reference to it.”—(Personal letter from Hon. John S. Hittell, San Francisco, April 24, 1888.)
Although Grieve’s account is, in the main, derived from Steller, every effort was made to find the latter author and examine his own language. The copy belonging to the Library of Congress had been mislaid, and it was not possible to find it; but the extensive Arctic Library of General A. W. Greely, U. S. Army, the polar explorer, was most kindly placed at the author’s disposal, and there the long-coveted volume was, translated by Mr. Bunnemeyer, to whom the warmest acknowledgments are due.
George William Steller was born March 10, 1709, at Winsheim. In 1734, he went to Russia, where he became an adjunct and member of The Imperial Academy of Sciences. In 1758, he was delegated to explore Kamtchatka, especially its natural history. After completing the task and making voyages to various other regions, he attempted twice to return to St. Petersburgh, but each time received orders to return to Irkutsk to answer charges there brought against him. He did not reach Irkutsk the second time, but was frozen to death while his guard entered a way-side inn, and was buried at Tumen, in November, 1746. The following are his remarks about poisonous mushrooms: “Among the Champignons, the poisonous toadstool, called mucha-moor in Russian, is held in greatest esteem. At the Russian ostrag it has long ago fallen into disfavor, but is used so much the more in the vicinity of the Tzil and towards the Korakian boundary. This mushroom is dried and swallowed in large pieces without mastication, followed by large draughts of cold water. In the course of half an hour, raging drunkenness and strange hallucinations result. The Korakians and Jukagiri are still more addicted to this vice, and buy the fungus from the Russians whenever they can. Those too poor to do so collect the urine of those under the influence of the drug and drink it, which makes them equally as drunk and raging.
“The urine is equally effective to the fourth and fifth man. Reindeer frequently devour these mushrooms with great avidity, becoming drunk and wild, and finally fall into a deep sleep. When found in this state, it is not killed until the effects of the drug have passed away, as otherwise its meat when eaten will cause the same frenzied intoxication as the mushroom itself.”
“The dance and custom you describe as existing among the Siberians I know nothing of. I neither saw nor heard of it. I do not think there is any of the mushroom species in the Tchuktchi country. The land is absolutely barren. I lived in the tents of that people for seven or eight months, and they never paid any attention to me as a stranger, in the way of hiding their customs from me. They would have their drumming and medicine performances before me, just as though I was one of them. The custom you allude to may prevail among the Yakouts and Tchuktchi, nevertheless, but I think it more probable that it exists with the Northwest tribes, such as the Samoyeds or Osjaks.”—(Personal letter from the Arctic explorer, W. H. Gilder, author of “Schwatka’s Search,” etc., dated New York, Oct. 15, 1889.)
“Captain Healey, of the revenue cutter ‘Bear,’ brought to this place, last autumn, a shipwrecked seaman, who had been rescued by the Siberian Tchuktchis, with whom he remained some two years. He described their mode of making an intoxicating liquor thus: in the summer, mushrooms or fungi were collected in large quantity, and eaten by a man who, like our Indians, prepared himself by fasting for the feast. After eating enormous quantities of the fungi, he vomited into a receptacle, and again loaded up, time and again, and disgorged the stuff in a semi-fermented or half-digested condition. It was swallowed by those who were waiting for the drink; and his urine was also imbibed, to aid in producing a debauch, resulting in frenzied intoxication.”—(Personal letter from Surgeon B. J. D. Irwin, U. S. army, dated San Francisco, Cal., April 28, 1888.)
“The seaman, J. B. Vincent, whom I found with the Tchuktchi last summer, says that they collect in their tents a species of fungi, and during their carnival season, corresponding to about our Christmas holidays, one man is selected, who masticates a quantity of it, and drinks an enormous supply of water; he then gets into his deer’s team, and is driven from camp to camp, repeating the mastication and drinking at each camp, where his urine is drunk by the people with an effect of intoxication. The arrival of this man is hailed with much pomp and ceremony by the people. The seaman, Vincent, witnessed several of these ceremonies, and was pressed to join in the orgies, being called ‘a boy,’ when he declined to sustain his part.”—(Personal letter from Capt. M. A. Healey, U. S. R. M. Steamer “Bear,” dated San Francisco, Cal., May 19, 1888.)
Kamtchadales.—“These people formerly had no other drink than water, and to make themselves a little lively they used to drink an infusion of mushrooms.”—(“From Paris to Pekin,” Meignan, London, 1885, p. 281.)
D’Auteroche, who made a journey from St. Petersburgh to Tobolsk in Siberia, in compliance with an invitation from the Empress Catherine, in the middle of the last century, to observe the transit of Venus, makes no mention of the mushroom-orgies of the natives. His work was not of much value, in an ethnological sense, being largely restricted to descriptions of the mineral resources of the regions traversed, and only to a slight degree attending to the ethnology of the country.
It is strange that Maltebrun, although familiar with Steller, does not refer to the mushroom orgy. He does say of the Kamtchadales: “In summer, the women go into the woods to gather vegetables, and during this occupation they give way to a libertine frenzy like that of the ancient Bacchantes.”—(“Universal Geography,” American edition, Boston, Mass., 1847, vol. i. p. 347, article “Siberia.”)
Stanley’s “Congo,” New York, 1885, was examined carefully, but no reference to any use of urine or ordure was found in it.
An identical experience was had with the “Voyages” of John Struys, translated out of the Dutch, by John Morrison, London, 1683, and with Nordjenskold’s Voyages, translated by Horgaard, London, 1882.
As the two latter travellers had entered Siberia, it seemed probable that they might have come upon traces of the Ur-orgies of some of the wild tribes like the Koraks, Tchuktchi, and others.
Salverte’s opinion that this use of the mushroom may be included in the category of Sacred Intoxicants, is shown to be accurate by a comparison with the statement made by the shipwrecked sailor, Vincent, who undoubtedly may be accepted as the most competent witness who has ever presented himself.
According to him, there was a man “selected,” who “prepared himself by fasting;” the “feast” took place “during their carnival season,” “corresponding to about our Christmas holidays” (i. e., the winter solstice), and there was much attendant “pomp and ceremony.” Add to this the statement made by Grieve, “they maintain that whatever foolish things they did, they only obeyed the commands of the mushroom,” and we have the needed Personification to prove that the fungus was reverenced as a deity, much as on another page will be shown that certain African tribes apotheosized a member of the same vegetable family.
If not for Sacred Intoxication, then the question may be asked, For what reason did the Siberians and others use the poisonous fungus? The only answer possible is, that, in the absence of the cereals and under the pressure of a desire for stimulants, the aborigines resorted to all kinds of vegetable substances, as can be shown to have been the case from the history of many nations. Mythology is replete with examples of the occult virtues of plants, such as the mandrake and many others.
Certainly, the religious veneration with which they were regarded was not more fully deserved than by this wonderful toxic,—the Amanita muscaria. The thirst for stimulants has been very generally diffused all over the world; there is no reason to believe that any tribe has existed without an occasional use of something of the kind.
According to the Chinese, an alcoholic liquor called “Tsew” was invented by Etoih, in the reign of To-ke, 2197 before the Christian era. See “Chinese Repository,” Canton, 1841, vol. x. p. 126.
Mr. John McElhone, the stenographer of the House of Representatives and a scholar of no mean attainments, stated to the author that he remembered having read in an old volume, the name of which he could not recall, of a feast given some centuries ago at the coronation of one of the kings of Hungary, at which the nobles were regaled with the rarest wines, but the plebeians were content to drink the resulting urine. There may be in Hungary, whether we regard it as peopled by the Hun-oi, or, later, by the Turkish element, an infusion of the same race-traits as are to be found at this day in Kamtchatka and other portions of Siberia.
Salverte speaks of the intoxicating effects of the “muk-a-moor,” but enters into no particulars. (See “Philosophy of Magic,” Eusebe Salverte, New York, 1882, vol. ii. p. 19.)
The people of Kamtchatka make intoxicants out of certain herbs. (Steller, “Kamtchatka,” translated by Mr. Bunnemeyer.) And we are further told that, while the people are gathering these herbs, much prostitution prevails, and everywhere there are willing girls in the grass.
“The settled Koraks” of Kamtchatka, “eat the intoxicating Siberian toadstool in inordinate quantities; and this habit alone will in time debase and brutalize any body of men to the last degree.”—(“Tent Life in Siberia,” George Kennan, twelfth edition, New York, 1887, p. 233.)
No allusion to the use of mushrooms as an intoxicant can be found in Sauer, “Expedition to the North Parts of Russia,” London, 1862. Henry Seebohm (“Siberia in Asia,” London, 1882) makes no mention of the urine-orgies of the inhabitants.