AFAMOUS Christmas cracker joke asks: what do you give the man who has everything? The answer: Penicillin.
We may laugh, but it would not be the most unusual of gifts ever given at this seasonal time of year.
In Siberia, people have been known to give each other flagons of a drink made from fermented toadstools which have hallucinatory properties.
The fungus in question is the flyagaric.
It is that red and white one favoured as a resting place by gnomes in children's books and is itself connected by some people with the traditions of Christmas as we now practise them.
For a start, in that part of Siberia, reindeer are used to pull sleighs. They are also very fond of fungi of all sorts so they are employed to snout them out by their owners.