safford: narcotic snuff, cohoba 553 



narcotic snuffs of south america 



It was in connection with his studies of the economic plants 

 and plant products of the aborigines of America that the writer 

 came upon a description of the custom of snuff-taking by certain 

 tribes of Indians inhabiting the tributaries of the Orinoco, in 

 Padre Gumilla's El Orinoco Ilustrado, printed in Madrid in 1741. 

 In describing the customs of the Otomaco Indians this venerable 

 missionary bewails their use of inebriants, as follows: 



They have another most evil habit of intoxicating themselves through 

 the nostrils, with certain malignant powders which they call yupa, 

 which quite takes away their reason (que les quita totalmente el juicio) , 

 and furious, they grasp their weapons; and if the women were not 

 adept at seizing and tying them, they would commit cruel havoc every 

 day; this is a tremendous vice. They prepare this powder from cer- 

 tain pods of the yupa (unas algarrobas de yupa) from which the name 

 is derived, but the powder itself has the odor of strong tobacco. That 

 which they add to it, through the ingenuity of the devil, is what causes 

 the intoxication and the fury. After eating certain very large snails 

 which they find in the inundated areas along the river they put their 

 shells into the fire and burn them to quicklime whiter than snow itself. 

 This lime they mix with the yupa in equal quantities, and after reducing 

 the whole to the finest powder there results a mixture of diabolical 

 strength; so great, that in touching this powder with the tip of the 

 finger, the most confirmed devotee of snuff cannot accustom himself 

 to it, for in simply putting his finger which touched the yupa near to his 

 nose, he bursts forth into a whirlwind of sneezes. The Saliva Indians 

 and other tribes of which I shall later treat also use the yupa, but as 

 they are people gentle, benign, and timid, they do not become maddened 

 like our Otomacos, who, even on account of this, have been and still 

 are formidable to the Caribs; for before a battle they would throw 

 themselves into a frenzy with yupa, wound themselves, and full of blood 

 and rage (llends de sangre y de sana) go forth to battle like rabid tigers." 9 



Shortly afterwards (1743) M. de la Condamine, while explor- 

 ing the Marafion River, found the Omagua Indians living at a 

 village near the mouth of the Rio Napo making use of two 

 narcotic plants: 



One called by the Spaniards floripondio [Datura arborea], with 

 flowers shaped like a drooping bell, which has been described by Pere 

 Feuillee ; the other in the native vernacular called curupa, both of them 

 purgatives. They cause intoxication lasting 24 hours, during which 

 it is pretended that they have strange visions. The curupa is taken 



9 Gumilla, Joseph. El Orinoco Ilustrado, pp. 117-118. 1741. 



