Darwin may be credited, the Cumaean Sybil
never sat on the portending tripod without first swallowing a few drops
of juice of the cherry-laurel.
There is every reason to believe that the Pagan priesthood were under
the influence of some narcotic preparation during the display of their
oracular power, but the effects produced would seem rather to resemble
those of opium, or perhaps of stramonium, than of prussic acid, which
the cherry-laurel water is known to contain.
The priests of the American Indians, says Monardur, whenever they were
consulted by the chief gentlemen, or _caciques_, as they are called,
took certain leaves of the tobacco, and cast them into the fire, and
then received the smoke thus produced by them into their mouths, which
caused them to fall upon the ground. After having remained in this
position for some time in a state of stupor, they recovered, and
delivered the answers, which they pretended to have received during the
supposed intercourse with the world of spirits.
The narcotic, or sedative influence of the garden radish, was known in
the earliest times.
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