Tezozomoc,[12] again, related that at the coronation of Montezuma the Mexicans gave wild mushrooms [hongos montesinos] to the strangers to eat; that the strangers became drunk, and thereupon began to dance. Diego Durán[13] gives further particulars of the coronation of Montezuma II; he says that after the usual human sacrifices had been offered, all went to eat raw mushrooms (hongos crudos), which caused them to lose their senses, more than if they had drunk much wine. In their ecstasy many of them killed themselves with their own hands, and by virtue of the mushrooms had visions and revelations of the future. The conclusion from all this evidence is obvious: the peyote of the Plains, _Lophophora williamsii_, is identical with the peiotl, peyotl, pellote, peyote, pejori, peyori or bejo of the Aztec and other Mexican tribes, but this cactus is wholly distinct from the little yellow thin-stemmed fungus teo-nanacatl, and Safford’s identification of the two is erroneous. FOOTNOTES: [1] Safford, _An Aztec Narcotic_ 294; _Identification of Teo-nanacatl, Narcotic Plants; Peyote_, 1278-79. [2] Sahagún, _Historia general_, Lib. 10, cap. xxix: “... ellos mismos discubrieron, y usaron primero la raíz que llaman peiotl, y los que comian y tomaban la usaban en lugar de vino, y lo mismo hacian de los que llaman nanacatl que son los bongos malos que emborrachan tambien como el vino.” The authoritative edition of Jourdanet and Siméon, 661-62 translates nanacatl as “champignon vénéneux.” [3] Sahagún, _Historia general_, 3:241-42: “Hay otra yerba como tunas de tierra, se llama peiotl, es blanca, hacese ácia la parte del norte, los que la comen ó beben vén visiones espantosas ó irrisibles.” (Lib. 11, cap. vii, pt. i, “De ciertas yerbas que emborrachen.”) Jourdanet and Siméon, 737, unfortunately describe tunas as “une ... plante qui rapelle la truffe,” which is a mushroom. Sahagún’s work is virtual dictation from Aztec informants, later translated with painstaking care into Spanish. It is difficult to assume, as did Safford, that such able herbalists did not know the difference between a cactus and a fungus. [4] “Hay unos honguillos en esta tierra que se llaman teo-nanacatl, críanse debajo del heno en los campos ó páramos; son redondos, tienen el pie altillo, delgado y redondo, comidos son de mal sabor, dañan la garganta y emborrachan.” (_Idem_, 3:241-42.) To be sure our own best scientific knowledge must always be the touchstone for the data of the various folk-sciences; yet one is not entitled to a lofty and comprehensive _á priori_ distrust of native knowledge, particularly when detailed with such clarity as this. [5] “Las setas (hongos ó nanacatl) hacen genus campos agrorum en los montes, son buenas de comer....” (Sahagún, _Historia general_, 3:243).