safford: narcotic snuff, cohoba 555 



without which the Otomac believes he could not take this kind of snuff, 

 is seven inches long: it appeared to me to be the leg-bone of a sort 

 of plover. 



A snuffing tube of the Otomac Indians, corresponding to this 

 description of Humboldt and now in the Berlin Museum, is shown 

 in the accompanying illustration, drawn by Mrs. R. E. Gamble 

 after Max Uhle (fig. 2). Its form is closely similar to that of 

 the polished wooden tubes of the Tamos of ancient Haiti, as 

 described by Las Casas. 



RUBBER SYRINGES OF THE OMAGUAS 



De la Condamine, after describing the use of narcotic snuff 

 by the Omagua Indians of the Maranon, tells of their peculiar 

 use of syringes of rubber (Cahuchu). It was from these Indians, 

 he says, that the Portuguese of the Para learned to make rubber 

 "pompes ou seringues" which do not require a piston. 



They have the form of hollow pears, pierced with a little hole at their 

 end, in which a tube of wood is fitted .... This instrument 

 is much used by the Omaguas. When they assemble together for 

 some fete the master of the house does not fail to present one, as an 

 act of courtesy, to each one of the guests, and its use always precedes, 

 among them, the repasts of ceremony. 13 



Why such a peculiar custom should have become established 

 among these Indians seems at first inexplicable; but the testi- 

 mony of other travellers shows that similar practices exist, or 

 did exist, among other tribes inhabiting the shores of tributaries 

 of the Amazon; and that for these injections not water was used, 

 but an extract of the same narcotic seeds as those from which 

 snuff was made. 



ACCOUNT OF SPIX AND MARTIUS 



After describing the use of paricd snuff by the Mura Indians 

 of the Rio Negro, Spix and Martius, in the narrative of their 

 travels, tell of a custom of these people, during their strange 

 annual assemblies which last eight days and are accompanied by 

 all sorts of debauchery, of taking a decoction of paricd in the 



13 De la Condamine, in Mem. de l'Acad. Roy. des Sciences, Annee 1745, pp. 

 430-431. 1749. 



