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“At Phœbi nondum patiens, immanis in antro

Bacchatur Vates, magnum si pectore possit

Excussisse deum: tanto magis ille fatigat

Os rabidum, fera corda domans, fingitque premendo.”

Æneid, l. vi. 78.

There is reason to believe that the Pagan priesthood were under the influence of some powerful narcotic during the display of their oracular powers, but the effects produced would seem to resemble rather those of Opium, or perhaps of Stramonium, than of the Prussic acid. Monardes tells us that the priests of the American Indians, whenever they were consulted by the chief gentlemen, or casiques as they are called, took certain leaves of the Tobacco, and cast them into the fire, and then received the smoke, which they thus produced, in their mouths, in consequence of which they fell down upon the ground; and that after having remained for some time in a stupor, they recovered, and delivered the answers which they pretended to have received, during their supposed intercourse with the world of spirits.