Skinner comments on the bean’s “ancient disrepute”:

If one reads the records truly, it begat insanity; it caused nightmare; to dream of it meant trouble; even ghosts fled shuddering from the smell of beans. The goddess Ceres, in doing good to men, set apart the bean as unworthy to be included in her gifts. The oracles would not eat it lest their vision be clouded. Hippocrates was that kind of physician who taught avoidance of it, lest it injure sight. Cicero would have none of it, because it corrupted the blood and inflamed the passions. The Roman priests would not even name it, as a thing unholy.

Scattering the flowers is thought to placate demons in many countries particularly in the Far East, being associated with death and the spirits of the dead. If one bean in a row should come up white instead of green, an English tradition associates this occurrence with death, and in the south west it was once believed that the third of May was the best time to plant kidney beans to ensure a successful crop.

Broad beans were thought to possess the soul of the dead, and when in flower it was believed that accidents were more likely to happen. If it was a leap year it was thought that the bean would grow upside-down. The shape of the bean was thought to be associated with death and ghosts. Scattering some around the outside of the house would stave off such attentions for 12 months.

Broad beans have also been associated with forecasting the future. A European belief was that three beans should be prepared in different ways to produce an outcome and then hidden on Midsummer Eve for the inquirer to find. The untouched bean indicated wealth, the half-peeled bean indicated a comfortable life, whilst the third fully peeled bean indicated poverty. The future was revealed by which bean was found first.

There is a legend concerning the philosopher/mathematician Pythagoras and a bean field. He believed that some souls, when leaving their bodies, became beans, so he refused to eat them. When there were enemies pursuing him, believing that he was a magician who needed to be put to death, he ran until he came to a bean field. Since he thought that the vines had souls hanging upon them which he did not want to trample, he instead stood still and allowed himself to be killed.

Most people have heard the legend of the Jack O’Lantern; nevermind that originally there were no pumpkins in Europe and this legend must be a recent one. Jack, a blacksmith, was drinking one night in a pub and ran into the Devil. Jack offered the Devil his soul in exchange for a drink, so the Devil turned himself into a sixpence that Jack could use to pay the bartender. Jack put the sixpence in his pocket instead, and the Devil could not escape because Jack has a cross in his pocket. Jack made the Devil promise not to take his soul for ten years before he would release him. Ten years later Jack and the Devil met on a country road. Jack asked the Devil to help him get an apple off a tree, and then he would go peacefully. The Devil agreed, since he figured he had nothing to lose, and hopped up on Jack’s shoulders to grab the apple. Jack quickly pulled out his knife and cut a cross in the trunk of the tree, which trapped the Devil up there. Jack then made the Devil promise never to claim Jack’s soul.

When Jack finally died, Heaven wouldn’t take him because of his sinful life. However, when he went down to Hell, the Devil also turned him away, because he had promised never to take Jack’s soul. Jack asked where he was supposed to go, and the Devil told him to go back where he came from, and since Jack pleaded for something to light his way, the Devil threw a live coal at him. Jack put the coal inside a turnip he was eating so that the wind would not blow it out. Ever since, Jack has been doomed to wander in darkness with his lantern until “Judgment Day.” Jack of the lantern became known as the symbol of a damned soul.

The custom of the Jack O’Lantern has its roots in 5th century Ireland, where the people would light candles inside of turnips to scare away spirits. They believed that on Samhain, which was the last night of their year, those who had died that year could return to haunt the living, as well as fairies wanting to wreak mischief. The lights inside the carved turnips were supposed to scare the spirits and fairies away.

A myth from the Taino people of Puerto Rico blames the pumpkin for making their land an island. Supposedly, Puerto Rico was once a mountain in the middle of a huge plain. Some magic seeds planted on the mountain produced a lush forest on that mountaintop, and a vine sprang forth which bore a beautiful golden flower. This flower, in turn, produced a pumpkin. Two men found the pumpkin and began to argue over it; while struggling they drop the pumpkin. It rolls down the mountain and bursts open on a rock. The sea springs forth from inside the pumpkin, forever making Puerto Rico an island. There is a similar myth from India concerning the pumpkin being responsible for the oceans; in that myth, though, a man puts the body of his only son into a pumpkin after the boy dies. From this pumpkin sprang fish and whales and later a deluge which covered the earth.

A rather disgusting myth from Korea is about General Pumpkin. The only son of a rich man had a great appetite for pumpkins, and his parents spoiled him by giving him as many pumpkins as he could eat. He ate pumpkin cakes, pumpkin puddings, pumpkin soup, pumpkin porridge, and still he wanted more pumpkins. He became huge and fat. His parents went broke trying to feed him enough pumpkins. The pumpkins also had the unfortunate side effect of making the boy flatulent, and the villagers were tired of his stench, so they drove him from the village.

He wandered from village to village begging pumpkins, and would work in exchange for them, but he lost every job in a few days when his employers found what an extraordinarily filthy glutton he was. One day he came to a big Buddhist temple in the mountains. This temple was quite wealthy, but there was a band of robbers who would frequently victimize the temple. The head priest at the temple asked the pumpkin eater to help guard the temple against the robbers. The boy asked for his usual payment: as much pumpkin as he could eat. While the priests were preparing this pumpkin feast, the robber chief came in disguise to the temple and asked if there was a party. The priests told him that General Pumpkin was there. The robber chief thought perhaps that the General had brought many soldiers with him since the priests were making so much pumpkin, but the priests told him that the General was going to eat it all himself. This made the robber chief want to get a closer look at the General, so he decided to spend the night at the temple. Unfortunately, one of the priests recognized the robber chief, and told General Pumpkin. He told the priests to go and hide. The band of robbers gathered outside and tried to break in, but General Pumpkin let loose such a horrible stench and deafening sound that the robbers were startled. A gale came along and blew down the brick wall surrounding the temple, and all the robbers including their chief were crushed under the falling bricks.

The head priest thanked General Pumpkin and told him he could stay as long as he liked. He lived there for many years, and had all the pumpkins he wanted. The priests planted a large field with pumpkins so that they could feed him, and he grew old living at the temple. One day the three sons of a rich man came to him to ask his help in defeating a white tiger which killed their father. They fed him pumpkin delicacies, hoping he would break wind just once. The three sons donned their armored and went outside to challenge the tiger to come out and fight. The tiny white tiger came out, and the three sons and it began to fight. General Pumpkin watched the fight through a small hole in the wall, and was so horrified by what he saw that he fainted. When he fell, he violently and loudly broke wind , and the tiger was paralyzed with fear from the sound and the smell that it was pierced by a bamboo stake. When the three sons came back inside they found the old man lying dead in the room surrounded with excrement.

Pumpkins are used to represent a man in a sacrificial ceremony for the malignant disease-bringing goddess Mari. Bosnian gypsies believe that pumpkins can turn into vampires. Indians ate squash and pumpkin seeds as a worm expellant and whole squash as a cure for snakebite. We mostly eat pumpkin pie and toasted pumpkin seeds.

There are three plants which go by the common name of nightshade: Deadly Nightshade, Atropa belladonna, Woody Nightshade, Solanum dulcamara, and Black Nightshade, Solanum nigrum.

Deadly nightshade has gone by many names, including belladonna, Devil’s cherries, Naughty Man’s cherries, Devil’s Herb, Great Morel, and Dwayberry. It was once known as Dwale. The origin of the word is unknown; one scholar believes it is derived from the Scandinavian word dool, which means sleep. Others believe dwale is derived from the French word deuil, which means grief. The atropain the scientific name refers to one of the Greek Fates, Atropos, who held the shears which cut the thread of human life. Belldonna is thought to refer to the practice of Italian ladies using the juice of the plant to dilate their pupils-this gave their eyes greater brilliancy. However, it could also refer to a superstition which says that the plant can take on the form of an enchantress of great beauty. It is also thought that the priests of the goddess Bellona drank an infusion of the herb before invoking the aid of this goddess of war.

Its poisonous nature is quite well known and has been used throughout the centuries. Poisoning by belladonna has the curious symptom of a complete loss of voice, along with continuous movements of the fingers and hands and bending of the trunk. It is supposedly the plant which poisoned Marcus Antonius’ troops during the Parthian wars. In the History of Scotland, there is the tale that Macbeth poisoned an army of invading Danes using a liquor infused with deadly nightshade. It was given to the Danes during a truce, so they did not suspect poison. When they fell into a deep sleep, the Scots fell upon them and murdered them easily.

Black nightshade is also known as Garden Nightshade or Petty Morel (to distinguish it from Deadly Nightshade, the Greater Morel). While it has a reputation as being exceedingly deadly, this is not the case. While it can be deadly, on the islands of Bourbon and Mauritius the leaves were once eaten like spinach. The berries of black nightshade are black like the berries of belladonna, but the flowers are white, unlike the dark purple flowers of belladonna.

Woody nightshade is also known as bittersweet nightshade, dulcamara, felonwood, and felonwort. In the Middle Ages the name dulcamara was written more properly as Amaradulcis, and literally means “bittersweet”. Felonwood and felonwort are not as sinister as they sound; felon is not referring to criminals, but rather to whitlow, which is inflammation of the toe or finger around the nail. The berries were used to sure this problem when other methods had failed. The plant was used for many medical conditions, including dissolving blood clots (in bruises), for rheumatism, fever, and as a restorative. Farmers used it as a charm around the necks of animals they thought to be under an evil eye. Bittersweet berries are red rather than black like deadly nightshade.

The black berry has had a bad reputation in many cultures. The Celts considered them taboo, although they did drink blackberry wine. In Greek mythology, when Bellerophon dared to ride Pegasus to Olympus, he falls off into a blackberry bramble, which blinds and maims him. He becomes an outcast and is shunned by all for the rest of his life.

One Christian folktale maintains that the Crown of Thorns was made of brambles, and that blackberries are so dark to symbolize Christ’s blood. Another tale says that the blackberry was cursed by Lucifer when he fell from heaven and fell on the brambles; before that it was supposed to have been beautiful. The devil is also known to stamp on the blackberries on Michaelmas Day, and after that day it is unlucky to gather them. Other folklore states that the blackberries become unlucky after Halloween. Christian art uses blackberries to symbolize spiritual neglect or ignorance, and Matthew uses brambles in a warning about false prophets.

European folklore considers blackberries to be death fruits. In Brittany, it was considered a fairy fruit and consequently was untouchable. Dreaming of brambles is an omen of future troubles; ‘if they prick you, secret enemies will do you an injury with your friends; if they draw blood, expect heavy losses in trade.’ Blackberries symbolize sorrow, remorse, and the painful side of the affairs of the heart.

Blackberries are considered remedy against all sort of earthbound, “physical” spirits (such as vampires); this lore is much older than the garlic one. The reason lies in the assumed fanatism of all physical demons to count things. When you put blackberries on a threshold or windowsill, you can force a vampire to count over the thorns and berries until morning comes. The same is true for elder.

The apple is well known as the forbidden fruit that Eve picked in the Garden of Eden, and in Christian lore represents sin, temptation, and the Fall. The angel of death, Azrael, could accomplish his mission by holding apple to the nostrils. Apples were present in many Greek legends, including the Apple of Discord which Paris awarded to Aphrodite. She had promised him Helen of Troy, and thus one of the greatest wars in history was sparked. The goddess of retribution, Nemesis, was often depicted carrying apple branches to symbolize the inescapability of death.

Proverbially, Apples of Sodom symbolize a disappointment. These legendary apples found near the Dead Sea ‘be full fair apples and fair of color to behold; but whoso breaketh them or cutteth them in two, he shall find within them coals and cinders, in token that by the wrath of God, the city and the land were burnt and sunken into hell’, according to Sir John Maundeville. Another proverb remarks upon unseasonable apple blooms: ‘A bloom upon the apple-tree when the apples are ripe, Is a sure termination to somebody’s life.’

Apples are sometimes considered a fruit of the underworld. The medieval ballad of Thomas the Rhymer has the Lady of Elphame warning him against eating the apples. Elphame was the underworld, and the apples there contained ‘hell’s plagues’. It’s implied that if he ate them he’d have to remain in the underworld. Norse mythology has the dead eating Apples of Hel in the underworld.

St. Dunstan sold his soul to the devil in order to assure that his ale would be successful. He had set up a brewery in Glastonbury, where the local apple cider was exceedingly popular. Dunstan, in exchange for his soul, had the Devil cause a frost for three straight mornings which destroyed the apple blossoms for miles around and guaranteed no cider would be produced. Consequently, there is a danger the Devil will repeat this act every 17th, 18th, and 19th of May. Two other legends involving apples are The Apple of Immortality and Micah Rood’s Apples.

The spirits of elder trees were especially vindictive as tree spirits go. Destroying an elder tree meant all kinds of bad luck. If elderwood was used to build a house, the occupant would complain of mysterious hands pulling his arms and legs. Burning elderwood would bring evil into the house. In Cornwall it was thought that burning elderwood would bring the devil to sit on the chimney. Sleeping under an elder tree brought dreams of death, and to dream of elder was to presage sickness. It was also said that anyone who accidentally found himself underneath an elder tree would be overcome with horror and delirium. Witches are supposed to lurk under its branches. The tree also has a strong association with fairies. The Welsh believe that dwarf elder will only grow where human blood has been shed, and their name for it means “plant of the blood of men”.

Elderberry wine was used to kill the boarders in Arsenic and Old Lace. Elder leaves mixed with tansy were once used as fly repellent.

The elder tree is one of the many trees claimed to have supplied the wood for the Cross, and that because of this it is doomed to be ‘small, crooked, and feeble’. It has also been credited as the tree upon which Judas hanged himself. Consequently, elderberries symbolize sorrow and remorse.

Like blackberry brambles, elder is considered protection against earthbound, “physical” spirits like vampires. This is older folklore than the lore about garlic. When you put elder on a threshold or windowsill, you can force a vampire to count over the thorns and the berries until morning comes, because these physical demons were fanatical about counting things.

While for Americans, the coconut is an exotic treat, it figures heavily in the folklore of many peoples in the Pacific and elsewhere. The Melanesians believed that a breaker of taboos would be driven to madness and would kill himself either by starvation or by flinging himself from a coconut palm. The Maori believed that the coconut sprung from the head of the eel-god Tuna. Tuna was a christ-like figure who had been sacrificed to redeem mankind, and to eat coconut was to partake of divine flesh. Unripe nuts were thought to represent heaven and the underworld. In the New Hebrides, the Malekula funeral rites include eating coconut so that the mourners may communicate with the dead. Hindus sometimes include coconuts as offerings on the anniversary of a death, as a symbol of rebirth.

Coconut palms were also thought shelter souls; the Dyaks of Borneo specifically transferred the souls of their newborns to coconut shells to protect them for the first year of life, and on Fiji a coconut palm is planted at a baby’s birth in the belief that the fate of the child is tied to the tree. The Baujaus of the Philippines use coconut shells to bury the afterbirth. The eastern African tribe Wanika thought that cutting down a coconut palm to be equivalent to murdering a parent.

Samoans believed that a coconut palm grew at the entrance to Pulotu, the World of Spirits. This tree was called the Tree of Leosia of the Watcher. If a spirit struck against it, he had to return to his body. Relatives would rejoice at this return from death, saying, ‘He has come back from the Tree of the Watcher.’

Sri Lankans have two different myths regarding the origin of the coconut. The first says that it sprung from the head of where a court astrologer was buried. The other claims that the coconut originated from where the head of a horrible monster had been buried. The Chinese called the coconut Ye-tsu or Yüe-wang-t’ou, meaning the head of the Prince of Yüe. Legend has it that Prince Lin-yi was fighting with the Prince of Yue, so he sent an assassin. The Prince of Yüe was killed while he was intoxicated by having his head cut off. The head was hung on a tree, and was changed into a coconut with two eyes in its shell. The resemblance of a coconut to a human head meant it was often a sacrificial substitute in the magical rites of many Pacific peoples.

Mistletoe is well-known as a sacred plant. The druids of old considered it sacred because in the dead of winter, when the branches of the oak tree were bare, and all of nature seemed dead, the mistletoe high in the trees was still green, and flourished without having roots in the earth. To them, it represented the life and spirit of the tree. Pliny described the harvest of mistletoe:

The Druids, for so they [the Gauls] call their wizards, esteem nothing more sacred than the mistletoe and the tree on which it grows, provided only that the tree is an oak. But apart from this they choose oak-woods for their sacred groves and perform no sacred rites without oak-leaves; so that the very name of Druids may be regarded as a Greek appellation derived from their worship of the oak. For they believe that whatever grows on these trees is sent from heaven, and is a sign that the tree has been chosen by the god himself. The mistletoe is very rarely to be met with; but when it is found, they gather it with solemn ceremony. This they do above all on the sixth day of the moon, from whence they date the beginnings of their months, of their years, and of their thirty years’ cycle, because by the sixth day the moon has plenty of vigour and has not run half its course. After due preparations have been made for a sacrifice and a feast under the tree, they hail it as the universal healer and bring to the spot two white bulls, whose horns have never been bound before. A priest clad in a white robe climbs the tree and with a golden sickle cuts the mistletoe, which is caught in a white cloth. Then they sacrifice the victims, praying that God may make his own gift to prosper with those upon whom he has bestowed it. They believe that a potion prepared from the mistletoe will make barren animals to bring forth, and that the plant is a remedy against all poison.

The Italians believed the efficacy of the mistletoe was greatest if it was cut o the first day of the moon, not the sixth. The Aino of Japan also regard mistletoe as sacred, and is deemed best if growing in a willow tree. In some parts of Europe it is considered best if the mistletoe is shot or knocked down with stones from where the tree is growing. In Aargau in Switzerland, mistletoe should be harvested when the sun is in Sagittarius and the moon is waning, and should be shot out of the tree with an arrow and caught in the left hand. In Wales, mistletoe should be gathered on Midsummer Eve.

The uses of mistletoe varied, but in most cases it was considered a cure-all. It also had specific reputations as a fertility enhancer or as a cure for epilepsy. The Walos of Senegambia in Africa carried mistletoe when they went into battle to protect against wounds. In Austria a sprig of mistletoe on the threshold would prevent nightmares, but in Wales if the mistletoe was placed under a pillow it would induce dreams of omen, both good and bad. The Swedes made divining rods of mistletoe which they used to find gold.

In Greek myth, Persphone opened the gates of Hades with mistletoe berries.

Mistletoe figures prominently in the Norse myth of Baldur. Baldur had dreams which predicted his death, so the goddess Frigg took oaths from all animals, all plants, fire, water, all metals, stones, and earth, and from all poisons and diseases not to harm Baldur. She did not ask this oath of mistletoe, because she thought was ‘too young to swear’. Since Baldur was considered invulnerable, the other gods would shoot at him, or otherwise try to harm him, to amuse themselves and to satisfy themselves that he was, indeed, invulnerable. But Loki tricked Frigg into telling him that the mistletoe had not sworn an oath, and then Loki tricked Hother into throwing mistletoe at Baldur. The mistletoe pierced Baldur and he fell down dead. The gods grieved much over this, and decided to burn Baldur’s body on a pyre on his ship. When Baldur’s wife, Nanna, saw the funeral pyre, her heart burst from grief, and she, too, was laid upon the pyre to be burned. The Scandinavians burned bonfires on Midsummer’s Eve which were called ‘Baldur’s balefires’, and most likely in ancient times a human sacrifice was burned upon them in effigy of Baldur.

So what is the Golden Bough? It was a branch from a tree in the sanctuary at Nemi, a grove sacred to Diana of the Wood. No branch on this tree was allowed to be broken, except by a runaway slave. Breaking this branch gave the slave the right to fight the priest-king of Nemi to the death, and if he succeeded, he then filled the office until someone else came along and slew him. This was the only manner in which the office could be filled. It was this Golden Bough that Aeneas plucked, as suggested by the Sibyl, before he began his descent into the Underworld. Virgil, in describing this scene, writes of two doves that guide Aeneas to the grove and alighted upon a tree:

whence shone a flickering gleam of gold. As in the woods in winter cold the mistletoe–a plant not native to its tree-is green with fresh leaves and twines its yellow berries about the boles; such seemed upon the shady holm-oak the leafy gold, so rustled in the gentle breeze the golden leaf.

Sir James Frazier, in his famous work The Golden Bough, hypothesizes that the mistletoe was known as the Golden Bough because when old and withered, all of the mistletoe, stems, leaves and berries, takes on a golden color. It was also thought that the mistletoe was brought to rest in trees by a flash of lightning (and was called a ‘thunder-besom’ by many peoples); as such, it was thought to carry the seed of fire. This makes it logical for Aeneas to carry it when descending into the Underworld, for it could illuminate his way

Fungi ben mussheroms; there be two manners of them, one maner is deedly and slayeth them that eateth them and be called tode stoles, and the other doeth not.
—–The Grete Herbal (1526)

Mushrooms are probably one of the oldest wild foodstuffs consumed by man, but also probably the one foodstuff with the greatest potential for disaster. While there are many edible mushrooms, there are just as many which are not only inedible, but downr ight toxic. The Garden of Deadly Delights listed several of the most toxic mushroom species, including Death Cap, Destroying Angel, and Fly Agaric. However, there are many other mushrooms which can be deadly, and these often bear a close resemblance to those that are inedible. Proper identification is crucial, because mistakes can, and often are, deadly.

So why bother with fungi at all? Simply, because they’re tasty.
The Origin of Mushroom

We now know that mushrooms are merely the fruiting body of an underground fungus, analogous to the apple on the apple tree. The vast majority of these fungi live by breaking down decaying matt er, often in warm, moist, dark environments. But to the ancients, mushrooms were a mystery. They saw mushrooms appear-apparently out of nowhere-after a heavy rain. They called them ‘a callosity of the earth’, ‘earthly excrescences’, and ‘the evil ferment of the earth’. Pliny said of them: ‘The origin of mushrooms is the slime and souring juices of moist earth….’ And Plutarch thought truffles, one of the great culinary delicacies of the world, came from thunder: ‘During thunderstorms, flame comes from s oft vapors. Deafening noises come from soft clouds. Why then, if two such violent forces could issue from softness, should not violent lightning, striking the ground, cause soft truffles?’ Pliny had a few more deprecating words about the mushroom:Now whether this imperfection of the earth, for it cannot be said to be anything else, grows, or whether it has at once assumed its full globular size, whether it lives or not, are matters which I think cannot be easily understood.

There is an interesting Polish myth concerning the origin of mushrooms. When Christ and Peter were passing through a forest, Peter, who was walking behind Christ, began to try and sneak pieces of bread into his mouth. The two had been traveling for qui te a long time without a good meal, and Peter was trying not to offend Christ with his need for food. As soon as Peter would put a piece of bread in his mouth, though, Christ would speak to him, and Peter would end up spitting the bread out so he could an swer. This happened every time Peter put a piece of bread in his mouth, until there was no more. And everywhere that Peter has spat out bread, edible mushrooms appeared. The devil, who was following them, saw these mushrooms and decided he could do better . He made brighter and more highly colored mushrooms by spitting bread all over the countryside, but all of his were poisonous.

Fly Agaric has a Germanic myth about its origin. Woten and his attendants were riding across the sky on their horses when they were besieged by demons. In order to get away from the demons, they rode their horses very hard. The horses began to foam at the mouth, and eventually bleed. This blood and foam mixed, and where it hit the ground, the Fly Agaric, which is red with white spots, sprung up.

There is an entire mythology concerning fairy rings, those circles of mushrooms found in fields, or more often today, in a suburban lawn. The fairy ring usually has a dark green ring of thriving grass enclosing a ring of dead grass, which then enclose s another ring of dark green grass. Elves supposedly joined hands and danced in a circle all night; the mushrooms would spring up at the outer edge of the dancing circle so that the elves had places to sit and play musical instruments. As Shakespeare wrote:

The nimble elves
That do by moonshine green sour ringlets make,
Whereof the ewe bites not; whose pastime tis,
To make these midnight mushrooms.

In Germany, it was thought that the rings were made by witches who were dancing during Walpurgis night celebrations; the Dutch thought the rings were the resting places of the devil’s churns; the French thought they were the resting places of giant toads; and the rings were also ascribed to dragons, who made them either by resting or by scorching the earth. Even as late as 1718, one scientist thought the rings were formed by snails, which traveled in circles and left slime trails which produced the mushrooms. Most other scientists thought they were m ade by lightning.
The Mushroom as God

Soma was a god of vegetation and celestial objects who was worshipped by the Aryan tribes which conquered northern India and Iran thousands of years ago. Not much is known about the status of this god or exactly what his duties were. What is known is t hat Soma, the god, was also a plant, and a juice brewed from this plant. In ancient times, there were secret holy ceremonies centered around the drinking of Soma. R.G. Wasson, in his book Soma: Divine Mushroom of Immortality, identifies Soma as t he Fly Agaric mushroom. Indeed, in modern times, the natives of Kamschatka in northeast Siberia were known to use Fly Agaric to make a hallucinogenic brew. This brew ‘creates grand illusions, a feeling of transcendence, and a sense of communion with the supernatural.’ The ritual often consists of the first man drinking the brew, then urinating into a jug and passing it to the second man, who consumes the urine. He then urinates into the jug, and passes his urine to the third man, and so on. The hallucin ogenic compound in fly agaric, ibotenic acid, is almost completely excreted in the urine, rather than being retained by the body. These people so closely associate their ceremonies with this mushroom that their words for trance, daze and drunkenness are a ll derived from their word for the Fly Agaric. Wasson has also hypothesized that fly agaric may be the ‘real’ forbidden fruit of the Bible, since it commonly grows in association with trees, and may have been mistaken as a ‘fruit’.

The Aztecs had a sacred mushroom, or rather, family of mushrooms, known as the Psilocybes. The Aztecs called them teonancatl, which means ‘the flesh of god’. One description of the ceremonies was provided by Spanish priest Bernardino de Sahagun (in around 1500):

The first thing which they ate at the gathering was small, black mushrooms which they called nancatl. These are intoxicating and cause visions to be seen and even provoke sensuousness. They ate these before dawn, and they also drank chocolate before daylight. They ate these little mushrooms with honey, and when they began to be excited by them, they began to dance, some singing, others weeping, for they were already intoxicated by the mushrooms. Some did not want to sing but sat down in their quarters and remained there as if in a meditative mood. Some saw themselves dying in a vision and wept; others saw themselves being eaten by a wild beast; others imagined that they were capturing prisoners in battle, that they were rich, that they possessed many slaves, that they had committed adultery and were to have their heads crushed for the offense, that they were guilty of a theft for which they were to be killed, and many other visions which they saw. When the intoxication had passed, they talked over among themselves the visions they had seen.

In fact, most of the peoples who inhabited Central America considered these mushrooms holy. The Mixtecs left behind a record (Codex Vienna Mixtec manuscript, 13th-15th century) which depicts the ritual use of the teonancatl by the Mixtec gods. They also had a god of hallucinatory plants, especially the sacred mushrooms, who was known as 7 Flower and is depicted with a pair of mushrooms. The Mayans were also known to utilize the sacred mushrooms, including the use of ritual enemas to deliver the hallucinogens. There are Mayan vases which depict various forms of this activity. And there are stone mushrooms statues present in Guatemala which may be as much as 3,500 years old. Their purpose is not known, but it has been speculated that they were religious objects.

The Romans also had an interesting association between fungus and a god. Stem rust of wheat is a fungal disease that produces masses of bright orange spores on the plant and will severely damage the crop. It has been known since ancient times, and Pliny called it ‘the greatest pest of the crops’. On the 25th of April, the Romans had a festival known as Robigalia. The festival offered prayers and sacrifices to the god Robigus, who had the power to control this fungal disease.
Fanciful and Real Properties of Mushrooms

Fairy rings had all sorts of superstitions connected to them. Treasure was thought to be buried within them and guarded by witches and fairies. In England, if a maiden washed her face with the dew from inside a fairy ring, the fairies would ruin her complexion. A fairy ring in your neighbor’s field was good luck, but one in your own was bad. And ruin awaited any Scot who stepped inside one:

he who tills the fairies green,
Nae luck again shall hae;
And he who spills the fairies ring,
Betide him want and woe;
for wierdless days and weary night,
Are his to his deein day.

Cattle weren’t exempt from these woes, either. The Danish believed that if cattle grazed where ‘the Elle-people have spit, or done what is worse’, then they were liable to fall prey to disease, and could only be cured by St. John’s Wort which had been harvested at midnight on St. John’s night.

Medicinally, mushrooms were used for all manner of remedies. They were used for cauterization, and were supposedly good for ripening boils and abscesses. Suilli removed freckles and blemishes, and were used as a salve on ‘foul ulcers and eruptions of the head and…bites inflicted by dogs’. Puffball spores were used by the Tewa Indians to cure ear infections by blowing the spores into the ear; in contrast, the Scots thought that puffball spores caused blindness (and called puffballs ‘the devil’s snuffbox’).

An interesting property that many mushrooms share is bioluminosity. The ‘Jack-O-Lantern’ mushroom is well known for glowing in the dark. Various mushrooms glow white, bluish-white, bluish green, greenish white, or green. Many of these mushrooms are nearly invisible during the day and only become visible as they glow at night. These phosphorescent mushrooms are particularly abundant in the tropics and are used for decorations or even to assist vision at night.

Of course, mushrooms have toxic properties. Some of those toxins just kill you. The toxin in Coprinus atramentarius only affects you if you’ve consumed alcohol after eating the mushroom. The toxin blocks the metabolism of alcohol, even four or five days later, and can cause alcohol poisoning. The gyrometra mushroom’s poison resembles an ingredient in rocket fuel. This toxin is volatile, and people have been poisoned just by breathing the fumes from a pot where the mushrooms are cooking. Of cou rse, there are also the ‘toxins’ which are hallucinogenic, such as those found in the psilocybes, conocybes, amanitas and panaeoli. And although Amanita caesarea, or bolete, is not poisonous and was in fact a highly prized delicacy of the Romans, it was nonetheless involved in a famous poisoning. The Emperor Tiberius Claudius was poisoned by a dish of boleti prepared for him by his wife Agrippina, and her son Nero ascended the throne.

Because of their association with death, violets became a flower of ill omen. Wearing them around your neck can prevent drunkenness, but it is also believed to encourage fleas to move into the home. The flowers were thought to warn of epidemic or death; if they do bloomin autumn it is said to be a death omen.

Violets figured prominently in the gruesome worship of Attis and Cybele. Attis was a vegetation god, similar to Adonis, and in legends was a shepherd beloved by the Phyrigian Mother of the Gods, Cybele. His death, in one legend, was due to a boar, again similar to Adonis. But in the more popular legend of his death, he emasculated himself underneath a pine tree and bled to death. Violets were said to have sprung from his blood. The priests of Cybele ritually self-mutilated themselves in the same manner. During the spring festival of Cybele and Attis, a pine tree was cut down and brought to the temple, then swathed in violets. During the third day of the festival (the ‘Day of Blood’), the high priest would cut his arms and offer the blood as a sacrifice, while the novices would castrate themselves underneath the violet-covered tree.

The Welsh had an interesting custom concerning violets. If a man had been beaten, violets would supposedly divine whether he would live or die. A bruised violet was bound to his forefinger; if he fell asleep, supposedly he would recover. Otherwise, he would die.

Many people don’t realize this, but sweet violet is edible, and has been used medicinally for many centuries. I made candied violet flowers recently; here’s the recipe.

Candied Violets

This was the recipe I found in Herb Quarterly, Spring 1996:

Gather the blossoms before the dew dries; remove stems and dry the petals with a soft towel. Place hand-dried petals in a sunny window or barely warm oven. Beat an egg white until it is fluffy and gently coat each petal using a soft brush. Dip each flower into granulated sugar, shaking off the excess. Dip again. Let dry thoroughly. Use to decorate cakes or ices. Refrigerated in a tightly sealed container, the violets will keep for two weeks.’

Well, this was a lot harder than it sounded. Some things I learned:

* Do not pick the flowers ahead of time, not even the night before. Pick them that morning, otherwise they’ll get all mushy and won’t keep their shape.
* If you do pick them ahead of time, or have some that don’t want to keep their shape, the best way I found to deal with them was by placing them flat, face-down and arranged in a proper ‘flower shape’, on a cookie sheet. Brush the egg white on the back side of the petals first, sprinkle sugar on them, and allow this to dry. Then the flower will usually retain its shape for you to be able to do the front side.
* Even if you have sturdy, fresh flowers, they usually don’t take well to being dipped in the sugar. I found sprinkling it on was far more effective.