“The Mushroom Drink of the Borgie Well”
from Scatalogic Rites of All Nations
by
Captain John Gregory Bourke
The following paragraph deserves more than a passing mention:—
“The Borgie well, at Cambuslang, near Glasgow, is credited with making mad those who drink from it; according to the local rhyme,
‘A drink of the Borgie, a bite of the weed,
Sets a’ the Cam’slang folk wrang in the head.’
The weed is the weedy fungi.”—(“Folk-Medicine,” Black, London, 1883, p. 104.)
Camden says that the Irish “delight in herbs, … especially cresses, mushrooms, and roots.”—(“Britannia,” edition of London, 1753, vol. ii. p. 1422.)
Other references to the Siberian fungus are inserted to afford students the fullest possible opportunity to understand all that was available to the author himself on this point.
“Agaricus muscarius is one of the most injurious, yet it is used as a means of intoxication by the Kamtchadales. One or two of them are sufficient to produce a slight intoxication, which is peculiar in its character. It stimulates the muscular powers and greatly excites the nervous system, leading the partakers into the most ridiculous extravagances.”—(American Cyclopædia, New York, 1881, article “Fungi.”)
Agaricus muscarius. “This is the ‘mouche-more’ of the Russians, Kamtchadales, and Koriars, who use it for intoxication. They sometimes eat it dry, and sometimes immerse it in a liquor made with the epilobium, and when they drink this liquor they are seized with convulsions in all their limbs, followed by that kind of raving which attends a burning fever. They personify this mushroom, and if they are urged by its effects to suicide or any dreadful crime, they pretend to obey its commands. To fit themselves for premeditated assassination they recur to the use of the ‘mouche-more.’ A powder of the root, or of that part of the stem which is covered by the earth, is recommended in epileptic cases, and externally applied for dissipating hard, globular swellings and for healing ulcers.”—(Cyclopædia, Philadelphia, no date, Samuel Bradford, vol. i. article “Agaric.”)
“One of the most poisonous species of the genus is the ‘fly agaric,’ so named because the fungus is often steeped and the solution used for the destruction of the house-fly…. It is as attractive and as poisonous as it is beautiful. In Kamtchatka, it is highly prized for its poisonous properties, producing, as it does, in the eater a peculiar intoxication. The fungus is gathered and dried; and when a native wishes to engage in a debauch, he has but to swallow a piece, when in a few hours he will be in his glory.”—(Johnson’s New Universal Cyclopædia, New York, 1878, article “Mushroom.”)
Poisonous fungi. “Several of this natural order are poisonous, especially those belonging to the genera Amanita and Agaricus…. The sufferers are often relieved by vomiting.”—(Encyclopædia Britannica, edition of 1841, article “Medical Jurisprudence,” vol. xiv. pp. 506, 507.) Speaking of the poisonous fungi, the same authority says: “The effects are singularly various, … among them being giddiness, confusion, delirium, stupor, coma, and convulsions.”—(Idem, vol. xviii. p. 178, article “Poison.”)
“The boletus mentioned by Juvenal on account of the death of the Emperor Claudius.”—(Cyclopædia, Philadelphia, no date, vol. xxv. article “Mushroom.”)
There are several allusions to the custom of poisoning with mushrooms to be found in Juvenal,—for example, in the first and fifth satires.
Tacitus says that when Claudius was poisoned the poison “was poured into a dish of mushrooms.”—(“Annals,” Oxford translation, Bohn, London, 1871, lib. 12.)
After the Emperor Claudius had been poisoned by mushrooms given by his wife Messalina, the Emperor Nero, his successor, was wont to call the boletus “the food of the gods.” (See footnote to Rev. Lewis Evans’s translation of the sixth satire of Juvenal, p. 64, edition of New York, 1860, citing Suetonius’s “Nero,” Tacitus’s “Annals,” and Martial’s “Epigrams,” I. epistle XXI.)
Plutarch says that it was a common opinion that “thunder engenders mushrooms.”—(“Morals,” Goodwin’s English edition, Boston, 1870, vol. iii. p. 298.)
Gilder, who crossed over Siberia from Behring’s Straits to St. Petersburgh, stopping en route with many of the wild tribes, makes no allusion to the use of the “muck-a-moor” or to any Ur-orgy. (See “Ice-pack and Tundra,” New York, 1883.)
“The Agaricus muscarius is used by the natives of Kamtchatka and Korea to produce intoxication.”—(Ure’s “Dictionary of Arts, Manufactures, and Mines,” London, 1878, vol. ii. article “Fungi.”)
“Their reputation as aphrodisiacs is thought to be unfounded, having its origin in the old doctrine of resemblances.” (American Cyclopædia, New York, 1881, article “Fungi.”) Probably from the appearance of the “phallus” fungus.
There seems to have been some superstition attaching to the elder dating from very remote times. It is said in Gerrard’s “Herbal,” Johnson’s edition, page 1428, “that the arbor Judæ is thought to be that whereon Judas hanged himself, and not upon the elder-tree, as is vulgarly said.” I am clear that the mushrooms or excrescences of the elder-tree, called auriculæ Judæ in Latin, and commonly rendered “Jew’s-ears,” ought to be translated “Judas’s-ears,” from the popular superstition above mentioned. Coles, in his “Adam in Eden,” speaking of “Jew’s-ears,” says: “It is called in Latin Fungus Sambucinum and Auriculæ Judæ, some having supposed the elder-tree to be that whereon Judas hanged himself, and that ever since these mushrooms like unto ears have grown thereon, which I will not persuade you to believe.” In “Paradoxical Assertions,” is a silly question,—“why Jews are said to stink naturally. Is it because the ‘Jew’s ears’ grow on stinking elder, which tree the fox-headed Judas was supposed to have hanged himself on, so that natural stink hath been entailed on them and their posterity as it were ex traduce? The elder seems to have been given in the time of Queen Elizabeth as a token of disgrace. It was credited with the power to cure epilepsy, to strengthen the loins of men, especially in riding, as it prevented all gall and chafing, etc., and had additionally the property of making horses stale.”—(Brand, “Popular Antiquities,” London, 1872, vol. iii. p. 283, article “Physical Charms.”)
Sambucus (elder) is mentioned by Frommann as a remedy for epilepsy.—(“Tractatus de Fascinatione,” Nuremberg, 1675, p. 270.)
Have we not a right to inquire why in primitive pharmacy certain remedies were employed? The principle of similia similibus is very old and deeply rooted. Perhaps the fungus of the elder may have once been employed in inducing intoxication and frenzy.
“The Ostiaks, the Kamtchadales, and other inhabitants of Asiatic Russia, find in one of the gild-bearing family—the Amanita muscaria—the exhilaration and madness that more civilized nations demand and receive of alcohol, and enjoy a narcotism from its extracts as seductive as that of opium. The Fiji Islanders are indebted to toadstools strung on a string for girdles which alone prevent them from being classed among the ‘poor and naked,’ and their sole æsthetic occupation lies in ornamenting their limited wardrobe. The Fiji fishermen especially value them highly because they are water-proof. Cerdier tells us that the negroes on the west coast of Africa exalt a certain kind of boletus to the sacredness of a god, and bow down in worship before it; for this reason Afzeltus has named this variety boletus sacer. A French chemist has extracted wax from the milk-giving kind, but has not stated the price of candles made from it. Others of the delving fraternity have shown that toadstools may be used in the manufacture of Prussian blue instead of blood, for, like certain animal matter, they furnish prussic acid. As fungi, after the manner of all animal life, breathe oxygen and throw off carbonic acid gas, their flesh partakes of animal rather than of vegetable nature.
“In their decomposition they are capital fertilizers of surrounding plants, and in seasons when they are plentiful it will repay the agriculturist to make use of them as manure.
“According to Linnæus, the Lapps delighted in the perfume of some species, and carried them upon their persons so that they might be the more attractive. Linnæus exclaims, ‘O Venus! thou that scarcely sufficest thyself in other countries with jewels, diamonds, precious stones, gold, purple, music, and spectacle, art here satisfied with a simple toadstool!’
“A variety of boletus—a tube-bearing species—is powdered, and used as a protector of clothing against insects. The Agaricus muscarius constitutes a well-known poison to the common house-fly. It intoxicates them to such a degree that they can be swept up and destroyed.
“Certain polypori—those large, dry, corky growths found upon logs and trees—when properly seasoned, sliced, and beaten, engage large manufactories in producing from them the punk of commerce, used by the surgeon for the arrest of hemorrhage, the artist for his shading stump, and the Fourth of July urchin for his pyrotechnic purposes. A species of polyporus is used in Italy as scrubbing brushes. In countries where fire-producing is unknown or laborious, and the luxury of lucifers denied, the dried fungus enables the transportation of fire from one place to another over great distances.
“The inhabitants of Franconia use the hammered slices instead of chamois-skin for underclothing.
“Another polyporus takes its place among manufacturers as the highly necessary razor-strop. Northern nations make bottle-stoppers of them, as their corky nature suggests. The polyporus of the birch-tree (Polyporus betulinus) increases the delight of smokers by its delicious flavor when mixed with tobacco.”—(Lippincott’s Magazine, Philadelphia, Penn., 1888.)
Before going further we are confronted with the statement that the African negroes bow down in worship before a certain kind of boletus. It is much to be regretted that Cerdier did not discover for what toxic or other property it was thus apotheosized.
Similarly, scholars cannot remain satisfied with the assurance that the Fiji Islanders use toadstools for girdles only, or that the Lapps carried other varieties upon their persons to enhance their personal attractions. Some aphrodisiac potency is more likely to have been ascribed to them in each case, which would account for the care displayed in their preservation, and justify the suspicion that they were kept ready to hand as provocatives to lust.
Dr. J. H. Porter is authority for the statement that in one of the Sagas mention is made of a man bewitched by a Lapland witch, who gave him an infusion of poisonous mushroom, which set him crazy.
“Lichens,” says De Candolle, “present two classes of properties, which are developed by different agents, and especially by maceration in urine.”—(Encyclopædia Britannica, vol. v. edition of 1841.)
There is an example of the employment of mushrooms in medicine for the stoppage of hemorrhages of various kinds, which can be traced back to the writings of Hippocrates.—(See “Saxon Leechdoms,” vol. iii. p. 143.)
“Some species of mushrooms, notably the Agaricus volvaceus contain sugar, which can be extracted in crystals, and is capable of undergoing the vinous fermentation.”—(Encyclopædia Britannica, edition of 1841, vol. vi. pp. 473, 474, article “Chemistry.”)
No instance of anything resembling the Ur-Orgy of the Siberians has been described among the Australians, but there is no knowing what further investigation may discover of the life and mode of thought of the wild tribes inhabiting that great continent, or island, as the reader pleases.
“The Australians will not eat ‘the common mushroom,’ although they eat almost all other kinds of fungus.”—(“The Native Tribes of South Australia,” Adelaide, 1879, received through the kindness of the Royal Society, Sydney, New South Wales, T. B. Kyngdon, Esq., Secretary.)
“Fungi, however, were used for food. The native truffle,—‘Mylitta Australis,’—a subterranean fungus,—was much sought after by the natives. When cut, it is in appearance somewhat like unbaked brown bread. I have seen large pieces, weighing several pounds, and, in some localities, occasionally a fungus weighing fifty pounds is found.”—(“Aborigines of Victoria,” A. Brough Smyth, London, 1878, vol. i. p. 209.)
“Mushrooms, called by the Chinese ‘stones’ ears,’ are gathered by some for the table, and form a part of the vegetable diet of the priests.”—(Chinese Repository, Canton, 1835, vol. iii. p. 462.)
But why the diet of priests particularly? May there not be some mythical precept involved?
(Monbottoes of Africa.) “Mushrooms are also in common use for the preparation of their sauces.”—(Schweinfurth’s “Heart of Africa,” London, 1878, vol. ii. p. 42.)
“There is a great variety of mushrooms, most of which are eat. Some, indeed, are poisonous, and unlucky accidents happen frequently.”—(Kemper, “History of Japan,” in “Pinkerton’s Voyages,” London, 1814, vol. vii. p. 698.)
A. Brough Smyth, “Aborigines of Australia,” p. 132, speaks of the use by the Australians of “a dry, white species of fungus, to kindle fire with rapidly.”
Agaric. “It groweth in Fraunce, principally upon trees that bear mast, in manner of a white mushroom; of a sweet savour; very effectual in Physicke and used in many Antidotes and sovereigne confections. It groweth upon the head and top of trees, it shineth in the night, and by the light that it giveth in the dark men know when and how to gather it.”—(Pliny, lib. xvi. cap. 8, Holland’s translation.)
“On mange généralement en Russie toutes les espèces de champignons;” but the “champignon de mouche,” and two other kinds, are excepted.—(See “Voyages,”—Pallas, Paris, 1793, vol. i. p. 65.)
“The Ostiaks of Siberia make a ‘moxa’ of ’un morceau d’agaric du bouleau.’”—(Idem, vol. iv. p. 68.)
Bogle enumerates mushrooms among the articles of diet of the Lamas.—(See Markham’s “Thibet,” London, 1879, p. 105.)
“Mushrooms and fungi of all kinds are eaten by the Bongo of the Upper Nile region.”—(See “Heart of Africa,” Schweinfurth, London, 1878, vol. i. pp. 117-122.)
“The Niam-Niams of Central Africa use fungi for foods.”—(Idem, p. 281.)
In a synopsis of the lecture delivered by the explorer Stanley before the Royal Geographical Society in London, he is represented as referring to the skill of the Niam-Niam in woodcraft, and the ability with which they detected the edible fungi from the poisonous.—(See “Tribune,” Chicago, Ill., June 28, 1890.)
Agaric. Avicenna believed that the white, or “feminine,” was good, the black, or “masculine,” noxious; it was prescribed for epilepsy, fevers, sciatica, asthma, pulmonary troubles, etc. (Avicenna, vol. i. p. 278, improperly numbered in the book as p. 287, a 10, et seq.) It also entered into a number of panaceas, such as “Theriaca,” “Theodoricon Magnum,” “Mithradatum,” and others.
It was a provocative of the menses, according to Avicenna, vol. i. p. 287, a 54.
Thurnberg mentions a plant—“Bupleorum giganteum”—found in Cape Colony, of which clothing was made, and which was also used for tinder.—(See Pinkerton’s Voyages, London, 1814, vol. xvi. pp. 21, 22, quoting Thurnberg’s “Account of the Cape of Good Hope.”)
“Toadstool, or rotten fish and willow bark, which are delicacies among the Kamtchadals,”—(“Russian Discoveries between Asia and America,” William Coxe, London, 1803, p. 60, quoting Steller’s account of the Behring Voyage.)
There are some varieties of agaric, notably that of the olive-tree, which at times emit by night a phosphorescent light. This peculiarity may well have caused them to be regarded with reverential awe by the ancients. On the subject of this effulgence, see “Philosophy of Magic,” Eusèbe Salverte, New York, 1862, vol. i. p. 63.
Pope Clement VII. died of eating too many mushrooms. See Schurig’s “Chylologia,” Dresden, 1725, vol. i. p. 60.
(Tierra del Fuego.) “There is one vegetable production in this country which is worthy of mention, as it affords a staple article of food to the natives. It is a globular fungus, of a bright yellow color, and of about the size of a small apple, which adheres in vast numbers to the bark of the beech-trees…. It is eaten by the Fuegians in large quantities, uncooked, and when well chewed has a mucilaginous and slightly sweet taste, together with a faint odor like that of a mushroom. Excepting a few berries of a dwarf arbutus, which need hardly be taken into account, these poor savages never eat any other vegetable food besides this fungus.”—(Darwin, in “Voyage of Adventure and Beagle,” London, 1839, vol. iii. pp. 298, 299.)
“These Fuegians appeared to think the excrescences which grow on the birch-trees, like the gall-nuts on an oak, an estimable dainty.”—(Idem, vol. i. p. 440; again, vol. ii. p. 185.)
Agaric, or toadstool, employed in medicine “to provoke to vomit” (see “Most Excellent and Approved Medicines,” London, 1654, pp. 3 and 10); also given “for provoking the courses” (idem, p. 23); also “to loosen the body” (idem, p. 36).
To insure conception, the belief was that both man and woman should take a potion of hare’s rennet in wine,—“then quickly she will be pregnant, and for meat she shall for some while eat mushrooms.”—(“Saxon Leechdoms,” vol. i. p. 347.)
The Bannocks and Shoshonees of the Rocky Mountains eat mushrooms,—“the kind that grows on a cottonwood stump; they know that some kinds are bad.”—(Interview with the Bannocks and Shoshonees, through the interpreters, Joe and Charlie Rainey, at Fort Hall, Idaho, 1881.)
The Indians above mentioned had no knowledge of any dance in connection with the mushroom or fungus.
Biblioklept 