Ololiuhqui and Peyote in Idolatrías y supersticiones de los indios

These excerpts gather three Spanish colonial anti-idolatry notices on ololiuhqui and peyote from the 1892 Museo Nacional edition. The translation is prepared for the archive from the printed Spanish; spelling in the original tab is lightly normalized from the OCR and should be checked against the PDF before formal quotation.

Pedro Ponce de León, "To Know Lost Things and Other Things One Wishes to Know"

They drink ololiuhqui, peyote, and a seed they call tlitliltzin. These are so strong that they deprive them of their senses. They say that someone like a little black figure appears to them and tells them everything they want to know; others say that Our Lord appears to them, and others, the angels. When they do this, they enter a room, shut themselves in, and set a guard to listen to what they say. No one is to speak to them until their delirium has passed, because they become as if mad. Afterward people ask what they have said, and that is taken to be the truth.

Hernando Ruiz de Alarcón, "Chapter VI: On the Superstition of Ololiuhqui"

What is called ololiuhqui is a seed like lentils or vetches. When drunk, it deprives one of judgment. It is astonishing to see the faith these unfortunate Indigenous people place in this seed, for when they drink it they consult it as an oracle for everything they wish to know, even things human understanding cannot reach. They use it to learn the cause of illnesses, because almost whenever they suffer wasting illnesses, consumption, persistent diarrhea, or any other long sickness, they attribute it at once to sorcery.

To resolve that doubt, and similar doubts about stolen things and about those responsible, they consult this seed through one of their deceitful doctors. Some of these men have as their office the drinking of this seed for such consultations, and such a doctor is called a páyni because of that office. They pay him very well, bribing him in their fashion with food and drink. If the doctor is not of that office, or wants to excuse himself from that torment, he advises the sick person to drink the seed himself, or to have someone else drink it for him.

Whether it is the doctor or another person who drinks the seed, or whether the drink is peyote, another small root in which they place the same faith as in the seed, the drinker shuts himself alone in a room. Usually this is his oratory, where no one is to enter while the consultation lasts. During that time the consultant is outside himself, and they believe that ololiuhqui or peyote is revealing what they wish to know. When the intoxication or deprivation of judgment has passed, he comes out recounting two thousand fables. Among them the devil sometimes mixes in a few truths, and with these he has them entirely deceived and ensnared.

They also use this drink to find things that have been stolen, lost, or whose location is unknown, and to learn who carried them off or stole them. Going to ololiuhqui as in the earlier case, they affirm as certain and evident whatever, in the time of intoxication, turns over in their imagination, or whatever the devil, father and origin of all deceit, makes them believe and understand. Even when later experience shows them the deception, it is not enough to bring them out of that blindness.

Jacinto de la Serna, Manual de ministros de indios

They also have great superstitions with a seed like lentils, which they call ololiuhqui, and with another, larger thing, a root they call peyote. They give these as much veneration as if they were a deity, for by drinking these plants they consult them as an oracle for whatever illnesses they seek to cure, and for whatever things they wish to know: things lost or stolen, and things beyond human knowledge, especially the origin of long and lingering illnesses that they attribute to sorcery.

They consult these plants through their deceitful doctors, who by drinking them answer all these doubts. The one who has this as his office is called páyni, which means one who drinks a purge or syrup. They pay such people very well. If the doctor is not very skilled in the office, or wants to excuse himself from the labor caused by drinking these beverages, he advises the sick to drink them, or advises those who wish to know about things stolen or lost, where they are, or who has them, to drink them.

They hold these seeds, and especially ololiuhqui, in such great veneration as if they were God. They light candles to them and keep them in small chests or boxes appointed for this purpose; there they place offerings, and put them on the altars of their oratories, or above their ceilings, or in other secret places in their houses, so that when people search for them they will not easily be found. The same veneration is given to peyote, and so much that it is widely accepted among them. When it must be ground for certain medicines, they say that for it to have its effect it must be ground by the hand of a maiden.