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Written by (anonymous)
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Saturday, 21 December 2002 |
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Page 2 of 4
Heim (1972) has compared B. manicus to the European species Boletus satanas Lenz [Boletaceae]. Like B. satanas, B. manicus has a whitish, felt-covered cap, a red hymenium, a marked red network on the stipe and a strong smell. However, B. satanas is larger in size, has a thick stipe shorter than the cap, lacks a marked root-like base and heavy red markings. The flesh of B. satanas is almost white, soft and almost sweet rather than bitter. B. satanas has deep tubes which are sometimes blackish stained and has larger spores (11-16 X 5-7µ). B. manicus then is smaller and more slender that B. satanas and its flesh is firmer, bitter and more highly coloured. The stipe of B. manicus has a root-like base and lacks any red except in the network on the upper stipe. B. manicus also has narrow tubes and smaller spores (Heim 1972:173).
HISTORY:
The use of nonda mushrooms was first reported from the Mount Hagen area of the Western Highlands by Father William A. Ross (1936:351). Ross, an American Catholic priest of the Divine Word (S. V. D.) who had been living in the Wahgi Valley since 1933, noted that “...ginger [Zingiber spp. (Zingiberaceae)] called kobena and a kind of wild mushroom called nonda” were the only “...quasi-narcotics [sic] or stimulants” used in the Mount Hagen area (1936:351). According to Ross (1936:351) “...The wild mushroom called nonda makes the user temporarily insane. He flies into a fit of frenzy. Death is even known to have resulted from its use. It is used before going out to kill another native, or in times of great excitement, anger or sorrow”. American anthropologist Abraham L. Gitlow also referred to the use of “...a type of wild mushroom” called nonda from the Mount Hagen area (1947:18). Gitlow's description of nonda (1947:18) is similar to the description by Ross (1936:351). According to Gitlow, “...The wild mushroom incites fits of frenzy, and has even been known to result in death. It is taken before going out to kill an enemy, or in times of anger, sorrow, or excitement” (1947:18). Ross's original description of nonda mushrooms (1936:351) has also been reported in several publications (Vicedom & Tischner 1943-1948; Wasson & Wasson 1957; Dobkin de Rios 1984). The pioneering ethnomycologists Valentina Pavlovna Wasson and R. Gordon Wasson learned of Father Ross' account of nonda mushrooms in the Wahgi Valley and described the effects of nonda mushrooms in their epic work Mushrooms Russia and History (1957).
American mycologist Rolf Singer (1958) then identified nonda as a single new species, Russula nondorbingi Singer [Russulaceae]. Singer had examined specimens of nonda that had been sent to the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew, England, by Dorothy Shaw from the Papua New Guinea Department of Agriculture, Stock and Fisheries (Shaw 1972). Nonda, according to Singer (1958) produced “cerebral mycetisms”. Singer, however, never visited the Wahgi Valley to collect nonda mushrooms.
In early October 1954, Australian anthropologist Marie Reay had observed that some of the Kuma who lived near Minj in the Central Wahgi Valley (Western Highlands District, New Guinea) suddenly began to run “amuck” (1959:188). The Kuma attributed this behaviour to eating a “mushroom-like fungus, nonda” (Reay 1959:188). Nonda was eaten by the Kuma all year, but at certain times of the year it produced “...temporary insanity in some” (Reay 1959:188). Reay first reported the use of nonda mushrooms by the Kuma in her monograph The Kuma: Freedom and Conformity in the New Guinea Highlands (1959:188-190). A brief ethnographic report by Reay (“'Mushroom madness' in the New Guinea Highlands”) appeared in the journal Oceania in 1960 and discussed the use of the apparently hallucinogenic fungus nonda among the Kuma (1960). Reay originally informally identified four varieties of nonda associated with the outbreak of “mushroom madness” among the Kuma: tuaadwa (white with yellow stem); kermaikip (red with white stem); ngam-kindjkants (orange) and ngam-ngam (orange with purple middle stem) (1960: 137; vide Heim 1963b:197-198). Heim identified all four types of nonda described by Reay (1960:137) as species of Boletus: B. nigroviolaceus Heim [Boletaceae] (tuaadwa); B. nigerrimus Heim [Boletaceae] (kermaikip); B. kumaeus Heim [Boletaceae] (ngamp-kindjkants); and B. reayi Heim [Boletaceae] (ngam-ngam) (1963a; 1963b; Emboden 1972:26). Heim and R. Gordon Wasson decided to “...explore Minj and the Mt. Hagen area with a view to making further observations and collecting the species involved” (Heim 1972:171). Heim and Wasson spent three weeks in the Wahgi Valley in August and September 1963 with Reay and collected and identified nonda mushrooms associated with Kuma “mushroom madness” (Heim & Wasson 1964; 1965). As a result, Heim and Wasson collected and identified eleven species of nonda associated with Kuma “mushroom madness”: Boletus flammeus Heim [Boletaceae] (nonda uln&eaccent; Kobi); B. kumaeus Heim [Boletaceae] (nonda ngamp kindjkants); B. manicus Heim [Boletaceae] (nonda gegwants ngimbigl); B. nigerrimus Heim [Boletaceae] (nonda kermaipip); B. nigroviolaceus Heim [Boletaceae] (nonda tua-rua); B. reayi Heim [Boletaceae] (nonda ngam-ngam); Heimiella anguiformis Heim [Boletaceae] (nonda mbolbe); Russula agglutinata Heim [Russulaceae] (nonda mos); R. kirinea Heim [Russulaceae] (kirin); R. maenadum Heim [Russulaceae] (nonda mos); and R. psuedomaenadum Heim [Russulaceae] (nonda wam) (Heim 1972:171-172). Heim & Wasson (1965:20) concluded that “...The mushrooms - or at least most of them - do not seem to cause physiological effects leading to madness”, thus establishing that these species of nonda had no hallucinogenic properties (cf. Heim 1972).
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