Do you see now? It’s
right there in front of you. These are
the moss covered stone stairs that lead into the secret path in the woods (which I have never shown to anyone before). Do you see how the fairies have tried to
trick me? They have lined the path with
mushrooms, and this is just the beginning of the path.
The entire path as far as I could see--and only the path--was lined with
mushrooms. Three of the four in this
photo are yellow fly agarics (Amanita muscaria). The other is a death cap (Amanita
phalloides). Not exactly a bouquet of
roses. The fly agaric are
hallucinogenic, and the fairies would have had a field day if I’d eaten one of
them. The death cap is, well,
death. Half a cap can kill you.
Not far along the path, I saw a destroying angel (Amanita
bisporigera), a beautiful white mushroom.
They don’t call it that for nothing, though. This is yet another mushroom that can kill
you if you ingest as little as half a cap.
Most mushroom deaths are caused by death caps or destroying angels. So, of course, it only makes sense that the
path would be peppered with them.
It’s a good thing I know my mushrooms, although you will
recall I described in my article, First Contact, that they had disguised a
painted bolete. Now I have eaten many
painted boletes in my lifetime, and I know what they look like. I think they used a red fly agaric, a
conspicuously different-looking mushroom from the bolete, but when you’ve got
the power of illusion, you can do such things.
I must say, though, that it sharpened my “other” vision--my “sight” as
they call it--which may have been their intention all along.
I did not take the path today. The temptation would have been too great to
stop and look at all the delights placed purposely before me. They taunt me and haunt me and trick me and
tease me.
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| Mushrooms line the stairs to the secret path. |
