“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.)