3S9rydC3U

FLY AGARIC MUSHROOM, Amanita muscaria, may beone of man's oldest hallucinogens. It has been suggestedthat perhaps its strange effects contributed toman's early ideas of deity.Fly agaric mushrooms grow in the north temperate regionsof both hemispheres. The Eurasian type has abeautiful deep orange to blood-red cop flecked withwhite scales. The cop of the usual North Americantype varies from cream to on orange-yellow. There orealso chemical differences between the two, for the NewWorld type is devoid of the strongly hallucinogeniceffects of its Old World counterpart.The use of this mushroom as on orgiastic and shamanisticinebriant was discovered in Siberia in 1730. Subsequently,its utilization has been noted among severalisolated groups of Finno-Ugrion peoples (Ostyak andVogul) in western Siberiaand three primitive tribes(Chuckchee, Koryok, andKomchodol) in northeasternSiberia. These tribeshod no other intoxicantuntil they learned recentlyof alcohol.These Siberians ingestthe mushroom alone, eithersun-dried or toasted slowlyover a flre, or they maytoke it in reindeer milkor with the juice of wildplants, such as a speciesAmanita muscaria typically occursin association with birches.