The ancient Maya considered tobacco to be a divine substance with its own soul. They saw in him the earthly embodiment of thunder and lightning. However, for some obscure reason, this respect led them to the idea of rectal consumption. They did not start smoking tobacco in his homeland right away - at first there were enemas. And they treated them with awe - much like Cuban cigars or briar pipes today.
There is no exact data on when people first tasted tobacco leaves. But we can assume that with a high degree of probability this happened about twelve thousand years ago, when people first began to settle in Central America. The life of a hunter and gatherer pushes to try everything that comes within the limits of the habitat. But mass and regular use began about six thousand years ago, along with the first agricultural experiments.
Two and a half thousand years ago, tobacco was no longer just used - the Maya actively cultivated and cultivated it, developing new varieties. It is curious that the early tobacco (which the Indians called "piziet") was much stronger than the current one. He was deliberately brought out so vigorous and so nicotine that even a modern connoisseur of barbaric brands, like Astra or Tambov leader, could faint from him.
The reason for this strength is precisely because tobacco leaves were not originally smoked. They were used with enemas. The Maya were such a peculiar people that for them rectal consumption of intoxicants seemed the only obvious method. The same applies to alcohol - in ancient Mesoamerica they did not drink it, they literally put it. And one of the obvious reasons is the appalling quality of the material.
The gloomy inquisitor Diego de Landa, in his anthropological work A Report on the Affairs in the Yucatan, wrote:
Bechi is a Mayan beer that is really best consumed rectally for its own good.
One nuance must have not been explained to the priest: drinking this mixture was not at all necessary. After the bishop left them in heavy meditation, the locals (probably glad that they were not captured by Diego's soldiers) got enemas and began to celebrate according to the custom of their ancestors. At the same time, the pink-cheeked Akan, the Mayan Dionysus, who taught his wards this tradition, looked at them from heaven.
Archaeologists have found many clay figurines that clearly show the use of enemas. Moreover, these figures were portrayed at ease chatting with each other, while their faces were blissful. It is not always clear which substance was used by ancient artists, but there were few options. It was either honey, flavored with hallucinogens, or a beer with a consistency reminiscent of pea soup, or an infusion of tobacco. The Indians themselves did not share these substances too much - for them it was the same ritual, simply with different effects.
For the same reason, the Maya often mixed them in cocktails. For recreational purposes (conditional rest with friends after a hard day at the construction of the pyramids), alcohol and tobacco infusion were used. In the religious, entheogens or tobacco mixed with dope (Datura stramonium). The mix was called tolohuaxihuitl and it sounds as creepy as it should be.
Many ceremonies were held underground, in dark caverns that were thought to be access points to the underworld. This was believed to enhance inner vision. In addition, everything was accompanied by rhythmic music. Just imagine yourself in the place of the conquistador who witnessed a similar picture. He will not for a second doubt that he is an eyewitness to the devil's ritual. Although in fact the guys just got together for a couple of tobacco and beer enemas.
Researchers who found the alleged tobacco pouches could not prove their use for a long time, although it seemed obvious. Small, with a pack of cigarettes, clay pots were often signed "House of Tobacco" and depicted cheerful people with pipes or enemas. So it looked like the most powerful nicotine advertisement before the arrival of Europeans.
Relatively recently, it was possible to prove the presence of a microscopic amount of tobacco in these vessels. So the Maya really carried pouches with them en masse. And it was also possible to find out that some of these pots were used not only for storage, but also as an integral part of an enema. Tobacco enema on the go - why did you invent this and not the wheel, poor Maya?
As Hegel wrote: "History repeats itself twice: the first time in the form of a tragedy, the second - in the form of a farce." The story with piziet and enemas was also repeated in a completely ridiculous and ridiculous way.
The Europeans of the 17th and 18th centuries were so imbued with Akan's charms that they themselves became convinced of the incredible usefulness of tobacco. It got to the point that, at the suggestion of the British physician Thomas Seidenham, doctors in Western Europe believed that an enema with tobacco smoke could save a drowning man. So drowning in those days was doubly inconvenient: as soon as the poor fellow was caught, they began to inflate him with smoke into the rectum with the help of furs, like a frog. Decades later, the idea was rejected with great reluctance, recognizing it as unpromising, but the English language was enriched with the expression "blowing smoke up your ass" ("blow smoke up your ass"). It means "insolently and shamelessly flatter."
Vladimir Brovin
