Shroomz

by novalark

Posted to What Are You Reading? on 2002-04-24 17:34:00

Parent message is 172528

The book Alice in Wonderland was written by Lewis Carroll after he had experimented with Amanita muscaria and the changes in size and time perception described in Alice in Wonderland are characteristic effects of the mushroom intoxication. People remain fascinated by this mushroom and you will see it illustrated in many children’s books, on lawn ornaments and on kitchen items. Siberian tribesmen valued Amanita muscaria for its effects and would even trade a prized reindeer for one or two dried specimens. When they urinated on the ground an hour after eating the mushrooms, the reindeer would come for the salt in the yellow snow and become intoxicated, clueing poorer tribesmen to capture the urine for their own intoxication. The common name “Fly Agaric” refers to the fact that in the Middle Ages Europeans learned that the mushroom crushed in a saucer of milk would attract flies that would become stupefied and drown.



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