Any one who reads the sacred books of the East for the first time, especially the Vedic hymns, will be puzzled to say whether the _Soma_, which is referred to so often, is a deity or something to drink. If we turn up the word in the index volume of the _Encyclopædia Britannica_, we are astonished to find such an entry as this: “Soma, a drink, in Brahminical ritual, iv. 205; as a deity, iv. 205; vii. 249.” The soma, speaking scientifically, is an intoxicating liquor prepared from the juice of a kind of milk-weed, _Asclepias acida_, sometimes called the moon-plant. In the _Rig-Veda_ and the _Zend Avesta_ (where it is called _Haoma_) it appears as a mighty god endowed with the most wonderful exhilarating properties. Herbert Spencer, in the chapter of the _Sociology_ entitled “Plant-Worship,” gives some of the expressions used in the _Rig-Veda_ concerning this fermented soma-juice. “This [Soma] when drunk, stimulates my speech [or hymn]; this called forth the ardent thought.” (R.V. vi. 47, 3.) “The ruddy Soma, generating hymns, with the powers of a poet.” (R.V. ix. 25, 5.) “We have drunk the Soma, we have become immortal, we have entered into light, we have known the gods,” etc. (R.V. viii. 48, 3.) “The former [priests] having strewed the sacred grass, offered up a hymn to thee, O Soma, for great strength and food.” (R.V. lx. 110, 7.) “For through thee, O pure Soma, our wise forefathers of old performed their sacred rites.” (R.V. ix. 96, 11.) “Soma—do thou enter into us,” etc. Dr. Muir calls Soma “the Indian Dionysus.” In Peru tobacco “has been called the sacred herb.” Markham says, “The Peruvians still look upon coca with feelings of superstitious veneration.” In the time of the Incas it was sacrificed to the sun. In North Mexico, Bancroft says that some of the natives “have a great veneration for the hidden virtues of poisonous plants, and believe that if they crush or destroy one, some harm will happen to them.” “And at the present time,” says Mr. Spencer, “in the Philippine Islands, the ignatius bean, which contains strychnia and is used as a medicine, is worn as an amulet and held capable of miracles.” The Babylonians seem to have held the palm-tree as sacred, doubtless because fermented palm-juice makes an intoxicating drink. The Palal, the supreme pontiff of the cow-religion of the Toda people of the Neilgherries, is initiated with incantations, and the smearing of his body with the juice of a sacred shrub called the tude.[103] He also drinks some of the extract mixed with water. He is purified by soaking himself with the juice of this plant, and in a week has become a god; he is the supreme being of the Todas. This transmutation is suggestive of the sacred soma.[104]