[21] But _Erythrina flabelliformis_ contains no toxic alkaloids; see Appendix 2. [22] Did that truculent and little-known group, the Caddo, have the mescal cult? [23] Has this taboo any reference to the boneless meat of the peyote ritual breakfast? [24] Voegelin, _Shawnee Field Notes_. [25] The Huichol, for whatever such evidence is worth, in the mythological songs of their shamans, recite how the world began and how they were taught to hunt deer, to seek hikuli and to raise corn (Lumholtz, _Unknown Mexico_, 2:8). The route they take in gathering peyote is from beginning to end full of religious and mythological associations, and they meet their deities on the way in the shape of mountains, stones, springs, etc. (_idem_, 2:132). According to their traditions, they originated in the south, but got lost under the earth as they wandered northward, reappearing in the country of the hikuli (_idem_, 2:23). Such deep-rooted symbolisms as theirs argues age. [26] Bennett and Zingg, _The Tarahumara_, 360, 366-67, 379, 383, 386; Lumholtz, _Unknown Mexico_, 1:357-358, 444 (but see 1:378). [27] Velasco, _Dictamen Fiscal_, 194; Opler, _The Autobiography_; _Lipan Field Notes_; _The Influence of Aboriginal Pattern_; Wagner, _Entwicklung und Verbreitung_. Opler says that peyote was introduced within the memory of the oldest living Mescalero; after 1910 it was in decided decline. [28] Parsons, _Taos Pueblo_, 62-63. The origin legend is Kiowa. Mooney received a letter dated July 18, 1921 from the Taos Indian, Star Road, relative to trials of “peyote boys.” [29] Cozio, _Proceso_. [30] In 1921 on the orders of the Governor, Manuel Cordova, a peyote meeting was raided and the blankets and shawls of all participants somewhat highhandedly confiscated. Prominent medicine-men refused to doctor “peyote boys” because the new religion was prejudicial to their vested interests. In 1923 two adherents of the cult were whipped, one twenty-five lashes, by the Lieutenant-Governor. Three men were fined $700, $800 and $1000, and the case ultimately reached the American court; the judge decided that the Governor had no right to impose such heavy fines, reversed the judgment and ordered the return of the property. This done, the officers resigned from office, and for a time there were no secular officers at Taos because no one wanted to take up the controversy. In 1931 the confiscated property taken ten years before had still not been returned, the Council refusing even to consider a $10 fine in compensation; $25 was demanded for the return of each shawl and blanket. [31] Parsons, _Taos Pueblo_, 80, note 64; 99, note 166; 118; John Collier, in _Peyote as Used in Religious Worship_. [32] This widespread origin legend of the Plains is also Mescalero and Lipan, and from certain indications I suspect that it is Tamaulipecan also. [33] Mooney, in _Handbook of the American Indians_, 1:701, “Kiowa Apache.” [34] Mooney, _Peyote Notebook_, 14.