The teonanacatl —in pre-conquest accounts and today

Resumen

Brother Toribio de Benavente, better known as Motolinia, describing the idolatry and bad habits of the Mexican Indians, gave thís unusual report about one of their lesser known vices: They had another drunkenness which made them more cruel: which was of sorne small mushrooms, which are found here as in Castilla; however the ones here are of such nature that eaten raw and being sour, one drinks afterwards or eats them with a hit of honey; and after a little while they were seeing a thousand visions, especialIy of snakes, and as they went completely out of their minds, it seemed to them that their legs and body were fulI oI worms which were eating them alive, and thus, half raving, they went out of the house, wishing that somehody would kill them, and with that bestial drunkenness and the trouble they felt, it would happen sometimes that they would hang themselves. And they were also against the others much more cruel. They called these mushrooms teonanacatl, which means flesh of the God (the demon they adored) and in that manner, with that bitter food, their cruel god held communion with them.