Any one who reads the sacred books of the East for the first time, especially the Vedic hymns, will be puzzled to say whether the Soma, which is referred to so often, is a deity or something to drink. If we turn up the word in the index volume of the Encyclopædia Britannica, we are astonished to find such an entry as this: “Soma, a drink, in Brahminical ritual, iv. 205; as a deity, iv. 205; vii. 249.” The soma, speaking scientifically, is an intoxicating liquor prepared from the juice of a kind of milk-weed, Asclepias acida, sometimes called the moon-plant. In the Rig-Veda and the Zend Avesta (where it is called Haoma) it appears as a mighty god endowed with the most wonderful exhilarating properties. Herbert Spencer, in the chapter of the Sociology entitled “Plant-Worship,” gives some of the expressions used in the Rig-Veda concerning this fermented soma-juice.
“This [Soma] when drunk, stimulates my speech [or hymn]; this called forth the ardent thought.” (R.V. vi. 47, 3.)
“The ruddy Soma, generating hymns, with the powers of a poet.” (R.V. ix. 25, 5.)
“We have drunk the Soma, we have become immortal, we have entered into light, we have known the gods,” etc. (R.V. viii. 48, 3.)
“The former [priests] having strewed the sacred grass, offered up a hymn to thee, O Soma, for great strength and food.” (R.V. lx. 110, 7.)
“For through thee, O pure Soma, our wise forefathers of old performed their sacred rites.” (R.V. ix. 96, 11.)
“Soma—do thou enter into us,” etc.
Dr. Muir calls Soma “the Indian Dionysus.”
In Peru tobacco “has been called the sacred herb.”
Markham says, “The Peruvians still look upon coca with feelings of superstitious veneration.” In the time of the Incas it was sacrificed to the sun. In North Mexico, Bancroft says that some of the natives “have a great veneration for the hidden virtues of poisonous plants, and believe that if they crush or destroy one, some harm will happen to them.” “And at the present time,” says Mr. Spencer, “in the Philippine Islands, the ignatius bean, which contains strychnia and is used as a medicine, is worn as an amulet and held capable of miracles.” The Babylonians seem to have held the palm-tree as sacred, doubtless because fermented palm-juice makes an intoxicating drink.