HUNTING ACROSS THE DANUBE : MAGYAR AMERICAN BOOK REVIEW

author: Peter Lewis Horn

First, I admit that I have not read this book word for word as I usually do, that I scanned it looking for locations I'd know from a map or genealogy search.  I am not a hunter.  If I had to kill an animal myself in order to eat I'd probably do so in the insanity of starvation. Then I would feel myself to be an animal as well. But I'm no radical vegan. I'm convinced my personal body needs meat due to a foray into food-combining vegetarianism that left me protein starved. I say this because those of you who are hunters - of wild boar, wolf, pheasant, stag, roebuck, mountain bear, and the CAPERCAILLE OFTHECARPATHIANS (What's that?!) - those of you who go after the few beast who've managed to live to an enormous old age - those of you into Couples Hunts, Ladies Hunts, THE KING'S SHOOT - who perhaps hunt in places where killing for sport is seen as a necessary culling of the limited wilderness - Those of you who go to Romania, Hungary and Transylvania, Lake Balaton - WILL GET INTO THIS BOOK!

It has blow by blow accounts of mud, rain, the obstacles of climbing and tracking, what takes cunning, as well as photo ops with dead animals and trophy racks.

Hint: Sheepherders will rat out a bear.

It's not my scene but maybe you'll want to read this book to self discover if it's yours.


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DOES ANYONE KNOW OF AN EXCELLENT BOOK ON ANCIENT HUNGARIAN SHAMANISM to RECOMMEND? MUSHROOMS?

I feel sure that the Ancient Hungarians (the people, likely several tribes, who came in from somewhere else, following that White Stag, and marrying White Fairy Women, were pagan, and practiced shamanism.  I would like to read about this, rather than about the Neo-Pagans in Hungary (though they are interesting too), and in English, though if you know of the definitive book and a great translator, let me know.


In particular, shamans in Native American and other cultures seem to use some sort of hallucinogen that is easy enough to find or brew up in their own local.  So that means Datura in Southern California and Mexico.  (There are many types but it's basically a plant with a white bell shaped flower. Having taken many hikes in the Santa Monica mountains and in the Malibu I know how to identify it.  Sometimes it just grows aside the road.  I wouldn't dare try it.) 


Peyote, I believe was used by certain Native American tribes, as well as 1960's rock stars, as an organic, rather than "acid."


I've heard of people licking poison toads in jungles.  There's a particular vine that is used in the Amazon.  And no doubt there were some witches in Europe who applied some unguent they knew how to make from plants that sent them flying on their brooms, even if they were laying around a hut at the time in their physical body.  I've read that MUSHROOMS were used in Russia by the Slavs.


On the West Coast of the United States there are rain forests in the redwood tree growth areas where MUSHROOMS grow that might also be handled and ingested carefully.  So I suspect that the ancient Hungarian shamans probably used some sort of MUSHROOM, but I could be wrong, because perhaps they brought plants and knowledge with them from the mysterious place(s) they left.


Having studied a bit about the Native Americans of Southern California and the South West United States, I've learned that sometimes the use of hallucinogens was a once in a lifetime experience, a rite of passage for boys, for instance, and that maybe only one or two shamans in the tribe used plants to have wild experiences using them.  The notion that having a "trip" that's outside normal reality is a spiritual experience is nothing new.


So - What should I read?  Or maybe I should be asking, "WHAT DO YOU KNOW?"