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MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN BULLETIN 139 
less, with very large soft and cottony leaves and the green 
color is inclining to that of the ox-tongue or bugloss (as it is 
called by the herbalists and physicians). The plant produces 
in some kinds sex seeds like the hog’s-bean which they use in 
the following way: The caciques or the chieftains possess 
some hollow bobbins of the size of xzeme: and less than the 
little finger of the hand in thickness. These tubes have two 
tubes converging in one as it is drawn (Table la, Fig. 7a) 
and all of a piece. They put the two tubes in the nostrils 
and the other in the plant which is burning or parched with 
heat. The plants were planted on smooth fields and very 
well cultivated. They use to smoke the leaves crumpled or 
involuted like the leaves used to drive away odors. They 
take the smoke not only once but twice or three times or as 
often as they can endure, as long as they are no longer un- 
conscious, or knocked over intoxicated or seized with a heavy 
and very deep sleep. The Indians who do not use the hollow 
bobbins used to take the smoke by some kind of tubes or 
carrizos?, and it is after this instrument used for taking the 
smoke, or after these tubes that the Indians call them tabaco, 
never after the plant or the sleep with which they are seized 
(as some persons did believe). The Indians esteem this plant 
as a thing of great value and they grow them in their gardens 
and on their farms for that purpose I make mention. It will 
help to the understanding of the reason for taking that plant 
for smoking since it is not only a good thing but a very holy 
one for them. And as soon as the cacique or chieftain falls 
on the ground he is taken by his wives, (who are many) and 
put to his bed or hammock, if he had ordered it before he fell 
down; but if he did not say and order it at first they do not 
touch him, but let him lie on the ground as long as he is left in 
that unconsciousness or sleep. I cannot understand what the 
enjoyment this brings at the beginning if it is not the mania 
for drinking which seizes the first who takes the smoke. Some 
drink so much of the wine they possess that they are drunk 
before they begin to smoke, but as soon as they feel to have 
1Xeme, the distance from the end of the thumb to the end of the 
forefinger, both extended. 
2Common reed grass, Arundo phragmites. 
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