Of course apologists sometimes use Christian arguments to confound the enemies of the cult, as when peyote and the water are equated to the Catholic use of bread and wine in Communion,[14] or when Old Man Green (Oto) told a minister that he was condemning God’s work in attacking peyote. But these do not proceed from any profound faith in Christianity. A Shawnee comment is most typical: Christ was born only several hundred years ago, not when the world was created, like peyote. Prayers are still addressed to the older tribal deities in peyote meetings: the Winnebago to Earthmaker, the Oto to Wakan, the Cheyenne to Mayan, etc. A Kickapoo summed up the religious history of his tribe as follows: We had medicine bags before Jesus was born over in Bethlehem, in the old country. The old generation worshipped idols. When God’s son was going to be born, they were trying to make the people believe God. And after Jesus was born, they commenced this [peyote]. Nevertheless, it should be reiterated that on the whole, despite the apparent and superficial syncretism with Christianity, peyotism is an essentially aboriginal American religion, operating in terms of fundamental Indian concepts about powers, visions and native modes of doctoring. The Christianity of many native Christians is precarious at best—as we have seen from various case histories—when it comes into any very serious conflict with native culture. Perhaps most peyote-users would echo the words of the famous Comanche chief, Quanah Parker, with reference to the superiority of peyotism over Christianity: The white man [he said] goes into his church house and talks _about_ Jesus, but the Indian goes into his tipi and talks _to_ Jesus.[15] FOOTNOTES: [1] “[De la Serna] adds that ... they delighted in caricaturing the Eucharist, dividing among their congregation a narcotic yellow mushroom for the bread, and the inebriating pulque for the wine. Sometimes they adroitly concealed in the pyx, alongside the holy water, some little idol of their own, so that they really followed their own superstitions while seemingly adoring the Host. They assigned a purely pagan sense to the sacred formula, ‘Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,’ understanding it to be, ‘Fire, Earth, and Water,’ or the like” (Brinton, _Nagualism_, 28); Bennett and Zingg, _The Tarahumara_, 369, 385. _Coix Lachryma Jobi_ was an early Spanish introduction, but may have replaced some native seed (e.g., mescal) used as beads. Serna’s mushroom is probably teo-nanacatl. [2] Klineberg, _Notes on the Huichol_, 449; Lumholtz, _Unknown Mexico_, 1:314; 2:170, 189. [3] Lumholtz, _op. cit._, 2:171-72, 272; Bennett and Zingg, _The Tarahumara_, 294. [4] Bennett and Zingg, _op. cit._, 290; Lumholtz, _Unknown Mexico_, 1:360-61. On Tarahumari Christianity see _Handbook of the American Indians_, 2:692b; the ease of acceptance suggests congruence with aboriginal forms.