Among the natives of the Zuni tribe - Pueblo, New Mexico (USA) - the plant Datura Inoxia is used in certain shamanic rituals, and is called by their name Angelkia [ a-neg-la-kya ] . In the following origin myth of the Datura plant, the deity manifests as twin sons of Father of the rising sun

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In ancient times, a boy and a girl, brother and sister (the boy's name was Angelkia and the girl's name Angelica), lived in the center of the earth, but often came to the outer land where they wandered, observing very carefully. Everything they saw and heard, they told their mother when they returned.

This constant talk did not please the deity. When they met the boy and girl, the deity asked, "How are you?", and the brothers replied, 'We are happy' (sometimes Angelica and Angelica appeared on earth as old men). They told the deity how they could sleep and see ghosts, and how they could walk for a while and look for someone who had committed a theft.

After this meeting, the earthly deity concluded that Angelkia and Angelica knew too much, and that they would be banished forever from this world. Thus, the deities caused the brother and sister to disappear from the earth forever.

Where the two landed flowers sprung up - flowers just like the ones they wear on each side of their heads when they visit Earth. The deities named the plant a'neglakya, after the child.

The original plant has many children scattered on the ground, some of the flowers are tinged with yellow, some with blue, some with red, some completely white - the colors coming from the four cardinal points (Stevenson, 1915, p. 46).

The Datura plant overlooks the Nahal Batsat Reserve in the Western Galilee

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Another Zuni story also refers to the clairvoyant property of Datura flowers, which is used

In this case for the purpose of hunting-magi. Under the title "The Girl Who Got Power Through Datura". The story describes the vicissitudes of a deer hunter and his younger sister who helped him in the hunt by sucking the datura flower. The close causal connection between the sister's act of sucking the datura flower, which probably resulted in an intoxicating effect, and the elder brother's luck in the hunt, is repeatedly explained, especially in the first part of the story. The hunter marries seven women, each of whom lives in one of the seven cities where the Zuni live (cities that actually existed in the Zuni territory known as Cibola). The first of these women is actually a witch, a fact the hunter is unaware of but not his sister. I quote the first part of the story in full:

"They lived in Kachapwa. The young man was a great hunter and he killed many deer. He had a young sister and every time he went deer hunting she would go down to the spring where the datura grew. She would pick the flower and suck it and the young man was lucky in his deer hunting.

One of the girls in Kachapawa wanted to marry the hunter. One night she ground corn meal and brought it to her [hunter's] house. He liked the girl and she stayed there. She was a witch and the man's sister knew it. She was not happy with her brother's marriage. The next night the young man went to the girl's house and spent the night with her. Early the next morning she returned to her home. The next night he went to Hawico. He went to the house of a girl from Oiko. He spent the whole night with that girl. The next day he went deer hunting. His sister went to the spring and picked the datura flower and sucked it and his brother was very successful in the hunt. He killed a deer and went home. That night he went to Matsaka. He went to the house of a girl from Matsaka. He stayed with her all night and the next morning returned to his home. That day he went hunting. His sister went to the spring and picked the datura flower and sucked it and his brother was very successful in the hunt. That night he went to Pinawa. He spent the night with a girl from Panawa. In the morning he returned home. He went hunting for the deer and while hunting his sister went to the spring where the datura grew. She plucked the flower and sucked it, and her brother killed many deer. He went to Hampasa. He spent the night at the house of the Ampsa girl. He returned to his house. That day he went hunting. The man's sister went to the spring, picked the datura flower and sucked it. His brother succeeded in hunting. At night he went to Kwakina. He spent the night at Kwakina's friend's house. The next day he returned to his home and went hunting. Her sister went to the spring where the datura grew. She pulled out a flower and sipped it. Her brother killed many deer. He went to Kakima. He spent the whole night at Kakima's friend's house. Early the next morning he went home to hunt. His sister went down to the spring where the datura grew. She pulled out a flower and sipped it. His brother killed many deer" (Benedict, 1935, vol. II, p. 179-180). 2, p. 179-180). 2, p. 179-180).

The relationship between the Datura-induced intoxication experienced by the sister and the good success during the brother's deer hunt is related to magical (or kinetic-magic) hunting methods based on the belief that if there is a hunt, it is because the Lord of the Beasts or some other supernatural being releases the game at the behest of my son. A person. These are very ancient practices and beliefs, evidence of which can be found in quite a few origin myths from around the world. The visionary source, which does not necessarily have to be hired by those who will actually hunt the game, is intended to bring the applicant into contact with supernatural beings. This happens, for example, with ayahuasca in some ethnic groups in the Amazon:

"In the Ashninka battle the shaman, by drinking Kamarempi [ayahuasca] and swallowing tobacco syrup, transforms himself into a hummingbird and in this guise he manages to reach the proprietary spirits of the various animals hunted by hunters, and asks them to release game to the community. In the Ashninka the soul of the shaman, when it Dissociated from the body due to the influence of a yaga or other visionary infusions, she goes to the lords of the various animals and asks for the release of game. Returning from his astral journey, the shaman indicates to the hunters the times and places where they can find the game "released". (Samorini, 2021, p. 21) .

Datura bed grown from one seed

The story of the Zuni tribe continues with the first wife, who was a witch, who wanted to take revenge on her husband for abandoning her by marrying other women, and for that she makes a pact with the second wife, that of Hawiko. She turns into an owl and flies to Apache land, asking them to attack the harlot city of Katchapwe in four days and kill her husband.

The hunter's sister has a premonition and desperately realizes that something serious is about to happen to her brother. In the village they announce a rabbit hunt that will last several days.

Every day that the hunter goes to hunt the hare, the nurse goes to the spring and eats the datura flower. On the third day of the hunt, the sister eats the datura flower, she prays for her brother and hears a voice telling her to go to the place where the wild animal gods (or animal gods, deities in the Zuni pantheon) live and ask for their help. In this case, a different function of datura is evident than the magical-kinetic one (for hunting), in which the spirit of the plant gives useful advice to those who swallowed it. When she wakes up, the girl sets off and meets the mountain lion, the polar bear, the badger and the wolf.

These give the girl a package with special bows and arrows to tell her brother that when the Apaches come, he protects himself and with those arrows kills all the Apaches who wanted to assassinate him. The witch's wife, along with that of Hawiko, does not give up and tries again to engage the Apaches, who are again defeated by the hunter. Then the witch's wife sends eight crane girls to her husband's house and kidnaps him. They keep him in their house as their husband for four years.

The desperate nurse goes to the spring and sucks the datura flower. Then the Datura command appears, giving her a crystal to put in her belt and telling her to check what will happen: if the stone turns black, it means her brother is dead.

So the girl involves several birds that are looking for her brother: an eagle, a hawk, an eagle, a hummingbird, but none of them can find her brother. However, the crystal does not blacken. At one point the crane girls travel with the man to his town, Kachepawa, to participate in a Yaya dance. They disguise him as a Navajo man, but his sister recognizes him and the two hug again.

The witch's wife and Hawiko's wife meet again and Hawiko's wife recognizes that there is no chance of killing her husband and she no longer intends to plan evil deeds towards him, unlike the witch's wife. At this point the hunter's sister goes to Hawiko to his second wife's house, scared because she thinks she wants to hurt her since she participated in the attempts to eliminate her brother.

In reality, her sister has no intention of harming her and manages to convince her to go with her to her source where the datura grows. She gives her datura, and as a result the second woman vomits "all the bad things in her heart, lizards, worms, insects and cockroaches. She drank four times and washed her stomach." In a shamanic-magical act, her husband's sister opens her chest, she takes out the heart and replaces it with one made of turquoise.

After this act of purification (another function of Datura evident in this story), Hawiko's wife kills his witch wife and reconciles with her husband, while her sister transforms the eight crane girls into crane birds, which fly north. From that day the hunter stayed with

Haviko's wife, owner of the turquoise heart (Benedict, 1935, vol. 2, pp. 179-186).

Translated from the writings of ethnobotanist Giorgio Samorini