An identical experience was had with the “Voyages” of John Struys, translated out of the Dutch, by John Morrison, London, 1683, and with Nordjenskold’s Voyages, translated by Horgaard, London, 1882. As the two latter travellers had entered Siberia, it seemed probable that they might have come upon traces of the Ur-orgies of some of the wild tribes like the Koraks, Tchuktchi, and others. Salverte’s opinion that this use of the mushroom may be included in the category of Sacred Intoxicants, is shown to be accurate by a comparison with the statement made by the shipwrecked sailor, Vincent, who undoubtedly may be accepted as the most competent witness who has ever presented himself. According to him, there was a man “selected,” who “prepared himself by fasting;” the “feast” took place “during their carnival season,” “corresponding to about our Christmas holidays” (i. e., the winter solstice), and there was much attendant “pomp and ceremony.” Add to this the statement made by Grieve, “they maintain that whatever foolish things they did, they only obeyed the commands of the mushroom,” and we have the needed Personification to prove that the fungus was reverenced as a deity, much as on another page will be shown that certain African tribes apotheosized a member of the same vegetable family. If not for Sacred Intoxication, then the question may be asked, For what reason did the Siberians and others use the poisonous fungus? The only answer possible is, that, in the absence of the cereals and under the pressure of a desire for stimulants, the aborigines resorted to all kinds of vegetable substances, as can be shown to have been the case from the history of many nations. Mythology is replete with examples of the occult virtues of plants, such as the mandrake and many others. Certainly, the religious veneration with which they were regarded was not more fully deserved than by this wonderful toxic,—the _Amanita muscaria_. The thirst for stimulants has been very generally diffused all over the world; there is no reason to believe that any tribe has existed without an occasional use of something of the kind. According to the Chinese, an alcoholic liquor called “Tsew” was invented by Etoih, in the reign of To-ke, 2197 before the Christian era. See “Chinese Repository,” Canton, 1841, vol. x. p. 126. Mr. John McElhone, the stenographer of the House of Representatives and a scholar of no mean attainments, stated to the author that he remembered having read in an old volume, the name of which he could not recall, of a feast given some centuries ago at the coronation of one of the kings of Hungary, at which the nobles were regaled with the rarest wines, but the plebeians were content to drink the resulting urine. There may be in Hungary, whether we regard it as peopled by the Hun-oi, or, later, by the Turkish element, an infusion of the same race-traits as are to be found at this day in Kamtchatka and other portions of Siberia.