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.At least five such metal cauldrons and seven fragments, with mycologicalornamental themes, were found in Rumania, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and different pans ofthe Soviet Union.The finds were uncovered near or, as a few cases inform us, inrivercourses and lakes.22 Soviet scholars have inferred that the transhumant nomads inKirghizia and Kazakhstan were bound by ritual to perform some kind of ceremonies atcertain watercourses in the springtime of every year, where they would leave their heavybronze cauldrons behind and re-use them upon their cyclical return from the quest forsummer verdure in higher altitudes.23 Other established authoritiessuch as Otto Maenchen-Helfen, who had been Privatdozent at the University of Berlin and later Professor of Art atthe University of California, Berkeleyseem to concur with this notion, feeling thatPage 162the associations of several cauldrons with other ritual objects lend support to such acontention.There axe those who further think that, owing to the fact that several handle-fragments depicting mushrooms were discovered buried separately, the most sacred aspectof the Hunnic vessels was formed precisely by the mushroom-decorated handles, whichconsequently needed to be protected from becoming profaned.24However, the idea that the mushrooms might have, possibly, signified the ritual use of ahallucinogenic substance was not seriously considered by any of them, with the probableexception of László.In 1955, he contended that the mushrooms on the handles of the Hunnicbronze cauldrons represented ''shaman crowns;"25 thus, drawing a connection betweenmushroom iconography and ecstatic religion among these people.Inasmuch as theenvironmental conditions prevailing on the plains of Hungary and Rumania precludedsubsistance based on pastoral mountain nomadism (transhumance), as the situation existed onthe plateaus of Central Asia, the Huns retained, undoubtedly, their old mode of behavior,consisting of depositing cauldrons near the water source, and which Maenchen-Helfen soughtto explain in terms of ceremonialism.Whether or not the mushroom-design possessed areligious connotation for the Huns constitutes an issue which does not, necessarily, have tobear directly on the reasons motivating these nomadic tribesmen to leave their cauldronsbehind.A different perspective on this matter may offer a simpler and more pragmaticanswer; mainly, that the bronze cauldrons were very heavy and, since cooking in themrequired large quantities of water, it made common sense to situate the vessels within closeproximity to a water source.Nevertheless, the use of hallucinogenic mushrooms in Siberia, Mongolia, and the adjoiningsteppe regions is well-documented, and is definitely several millennia older than the bronzecauldrons of Attila and his Huns, who probably learned the production of these vessels in theborderlands of northern China.We have no certain evidence indicating the specific functionand use of the mushrooms -among the warlike Huns.To augur was a common practice withthe Huns, and the fearsome Attila was described as "a man who sought counsel of omens inall warfare.[and] decided to inquire into the future through haruspices,"26 orscapulimancythat is, "reading" animal bones and the entrails to cast prognostications.Sincemost of the epigraphic reports on the custom of divination were written by Christian priestsand theologians of the day, set on denouncing the practice as ungodly and heathen, it is morethan likely that they did not graspor even care towithout prejudice the full dimension andmeaning of what they were describing.However, "that the Huns had shamans is certain.Kam in the names Atakam and Eskam is qam, the common Turkish word forPage 163shamans.To judge from the two names of high-ranking Huns, the shamans seem to havebelonged to the upper stratum of Hun society.'' 27The earliest known eye-witness account on the consumption of the mushroom fly-agaricamong the Siberian folk dates back to 1658 and comes to us in the form of an entry made bya Polish war prisoner, Adam Kamienski* Dluzyk*, on the customs of the Ostyak tribes in theIrtysh-Ob river valleys in western Siberia."They eat certain fungi in the shape of fly-agarics,and thus get drank worse than on vodka, and for them that's the very best banquet [ Pobierz caÅ‚ość w formacie PDF ]