ly, in bloom this morning, guard me! Drive away
sorcery! Make me grow old! Let me reach the age at which I have to
take up a walking-stick! I thank thee for exhaling thy fragrance there,
where thou art standing!")

High mental qualities are ascribed especially to all species of
_Mammilaria_ and _Echinocactus_, small cacti, for which a regular cult
is instituted. The Tarahumares designate several varieties as hikuli,
though the name belongs properly only to the kind most commonly used
by them. These plants live for months after they have been rooted up,
and the eating of them causes a state of ecstasy. They are therefore
considered demi-gods, who have to be treated with great reverence,
and to whom sacrifices have to be offered.

The principal kinds thus distinguished are known to science as
_Lophophora Williamsii_ and _Lophophora Williamsii_, var. _Lewinii_. In
the United States they are called mescal buttons, and in Mexico
_peyote_. The Tarahumares speak of them as the superior hikuli (hikuli
waname), or simply hikuli, they being the hikuli _par excellence_.

The Huichol Indians, who live many hundred miles south of the
Tarahumares, also have a hikuli cult, and it is a curious and
interesting fact that with them the plant has even the same name,
although the two tribes are neither related to nor connected with each
other. The cults, too, show many points of resemblance, though with the
southern tribe the plant plays a far more important part in the tribal
life, and its worship is much more elaborate. On the other hand, the
Huichols use only the species and variety shown in the illustration,
while the Tarahumares have several. Major J. B. Pond, of New York,
informs me that in Texas, during the Civil War, the so-called Texas
Rangers, when taken prisoners and deprived of all other stimulating
drinks, used mescal buttons, or "white mule," as they called them. They
soaked the plants in water and became intoxicated with the liquid.

The plant, when taken, exhilarates the human system, and allays all
feeling of hunger and thirst. It also produces colour-visions. When
fresh, it has a nauseating, slightly sour taste, but it is wonderfully
refreshing when one has been exposed to great fatigue. Not only does
it do away with all exhaustion, but one feels actually pushed on, as I
can testify from personal experience. In this respect it resembles the
Peruvian coca; but unlike the latter, it leaves a certain depression,
as well a