| Jochelson [case 21] confirms this in his publication, writing: “The idea of the Koryak is that a person drugged with agaric fungi does what the spirits residing in them (wapaq) tell him to do, ‘Here I am, lying here and feeling so sad, (would one fellow exclaim to another) but should I eat some fly agaric, I should get up and commence to talk and dance. There is an old man with white hair. If he should eat some agaric, and if he were then told by it, ‘you have just been born,’ the old man would at once begin to cry like a new born baby. Or if the fly agaric should say to the man, ‘you will melt away soon,’ then the old man would see his legs, arms, and body melt away, and he would say, “Oh! Why have I eaten of the agaric? Now I am gone!” (31) Recycling and Consumption of Urine Evidence of urine consumption in the written record allows us to place mushroom consumption and ritual in antiquity. The fact that we have instances of myth in which both Shiva and Krishna require their pupils to drink their urine, and the accounts in the Rig Veda and the Zend Avesta, mentioning urine, combined with the knowledge Wasson gathered and made available regarding Siberia, allow us to form a factual picture of religious history in this regard. In the account of Strahlenberg, [case 3] a Swedish Colonel who died in custody as a Siberian prisoner of war, he described the practices of the Koryak tribe in the extreme northeast of Siberia: “The Russians who trade with them [Koryak], carry thither a Kind of Mushrooms, called, in the Russian Tongue, Muchumor, which they exchange for Squirils, Fox, Hermin, Sable, and other Furs: Those who are rich among them, lay up large Provisions of these Mushrooms, for the Winter. When they make a Feast, they pour Water upon some of these Mushrooms, and boil them. They then drink the liquor, which intoxicates them; The Poorer Sort, who cannot afford to lay in a Store of these Mushrooms, post themselves, on these occasions, round the Huts of the Rich, and watch the Opportunity of the guests coming out to make Water; and then hold a wooden bowl to receive the urine, which they drink off greedily, as having still some virtue of the mushroom in it, and by this way they also get drunk.” (32) In another account, of Krasheninnikov [case 4], mention is given again of the custom of saving the urine: “Incidentally, among the settled Koryaks the mukhomor is held in such high esteem that those who are intoxicated are not allowed to urinate on the ground but are furnished by others with a dish for this purpose, which urine they drink and also do wild things like those who have eaten the mushroom; for they get the mukhomor from the Kamchadals, as it does not grow in their own country.” (33) |
In another account, Steller, in a Description of Kamchatka and its Inhabitants, from 1776, writes about not only the drinking of the urine, but the intoxication of the deer as well. This is a highly interesting account for several reasons, so I included the entire account: “Among the mushrooms the poisonous fly-agaric (in Russian muchamoor, in Italmen [Kamchadal] ghugakop) is highly valued. In the Russian settlements this habit has been lost for a long time. However, around the Tigil and towards the Koryak border it is very much alive. The fly agarics are dried, then eaten in large pieces without chewing them, washing them down with cold water. After about half an hour the person becomes completely intoxicated and experiences extraordinary visions. The Koryak and Yukagir are even fonder of this mushroom. So eager are they to get it that they buy it from the Russians wherever and whenever possible. Those who cannot afford the fairly high price drink the urine of those who have eaten it, whereupon they become as intoxicated, if not more so. The urine seems to be more powerful than the mushroom, and its effect may last through the fourth or fifth man. Despite the fact that I have personally made these observations in 1739, some people have contradicted my experiences. I have therefore taken great pain to establish the truthfulness of what has been recorded here. Reports from persons whose authority cannot be attacked have confirmed my findings. Thus, a man from the lower gentry named Kutukov, having to guard the reindeer herd, has noticed that these animals have frequently eaten that mushroom, which they like very much. Whereupon they have behaved like drunken animals, and then have fallen into a deep slumber. When the Koryak encounter an intoxicated reindeer, they tie his legs until the mushroom has lost its strength and effect. Then they kill the reindeer. If they kill the animal while it is drunk or asleep and eat of its flesh, then everybody who has tasted it becomes intoxicated as if he had eaten the actual fly-agaric.” (34) (31) Soma, Wasson, p. 268-69; Waldemar Jochelson. Part I: The Koryak: Memoir of the American Museum of Natural History, New York, 1905, Part II: Material Culture and Social Organization (32) ibid, p. 234-35; Strahlenberg, Filip Johann Von. An Historico-Geographical Description of the North and Eastern Parts of Europe and Asia; But more Particularly of Russia, Siberia, and Great Tartary; etc... London. 1736. Second Printing, 1738. Originally published in Stockholm in 1730. Translated also into French. p. 397 English Ed. (33) ibid, p. 237 (34) Soma, Wasson, p. 239; Steller, Georg Wilhelm. Beschreibung von dem Lande Kamtschatka, dessen Einwohnern, deren sitten, Hanmen, Lebensaart und verschiedenen Gewohnheiten. (Description of Kamchatka, its Inhabitants, Their Customs, Names, Way of Life and Different Habits) Leipzig. 1774, pp. 92-93 |