Soma

The divine mushroom of the gods, aka Amanita Muscaria, aka the fly agaric. The woods were also full of these this summer. Although closely related to the Aminita Virosa, aka the angle of death (see September 25th's post) and commonly considered to be poisones, the Muscaria will not actually kill you. Although don't go taking my word on it and giving it a try. Instead it will give you a wicked bad stomach ache, probably causeing you to vomit all over your back friends porch (you know who you are) and causing mild halucinations. It was used as a drug of choice by Siberian tribes way back when, and they were clever enough to discover that, if you drink the urine of someone who has eaten the mushroom, you get the effect of the drug without the upset stomach and so they would get their slaves to eat the mushroom for them and then ... you get the idea. Since I am not interested in serious stomach aches or piss drinking I have never attempted this pracitse, besides my mother drilled it into my head at a very young age to stay away from any Amanita except for the delicious Cesaria. The Muscaria is also the classic mushroom on which you will find a fairy or elf perched in your typical children's illustration, I believe that the European variety must have a much redder cap than the one pictured, producing the classic toadstool with the red cap and white flecks. The New Hampshire variety is more yellow-orange in my experience. This means that you do have to exercise some caution when hunting for the yellow-orange-red Cesaria so as not to get yourself a Muscaria with the spots all washed off - notice that the one in the picture has only a few spots left, due to the heavy rain we experienced this summer. I hope I will see a Cesaria some time and be able to complete my little lesson on the facinating family of the Amanitas. Not really fair that the woods have been full of only the poisones ones and not the delicious ones.