Upon returning, the Boras chip the hard, brittle outermost 
layer of bark from each strip, leaving only the thick, softer 
layer of the inner bark and phloem, called rem’-bee-ho-o in 
Bora. This cortical layer, now turned reddish brown with a 
congealed, oxidized “‘resin’’, is pounded on a log with a 
wooden mallet, until it is quite shredded. Cut into short pieces 
of convenient length, these shredded sections of bark are 
placed in a pot of a two-foot diameter with three or four inches 
of water at air temperature. They are allowed to soak for one 
half to three quarters of an hour with occasional kneading. The 
water soon becomes a chocolate brown colour. 
When the colour of the water is sufficiently deep, the pot Is 
slowly brought to a boil and, with the pieces of bark still in the 
liquid, it is boiled vigourously for about an hour, when the 
shredded bark is taken out, and, after the liquid is squeezed out 
back into the pot, it is discarded. The liquid is then boiled with 
almost constant stirring for another forty-five minutes to an 
hour, until a richly chocolate-coloured syrup remains. Stirring 
must be constant and careful towards the very end of the 
evaporation, so that a thick, sticky but homogeneous paste is 
left. The Boras call this paste ko’do. 
We would venture to assume that the Witoto technique is 
more efficient than that followed by the Boras. The nearly 
colourless liquid which rapidly turns reddish or brownish and 
which, for lack of a better term, we have called ‘‘resin’’. is 
present only in or near the cambial layer, not in the outer layers 
of bast or phloem. It is clear that the active principles them- 
selves — the tryptamines — occur mainly in the cambial sap 
and that boiling of the cambial tissue coagulates proteins and 
perhaps polysaccharides. When only this delicate cambial tis- 
sue is present, as in the Witoto method, it is obvious that such 
coagulation must proceed more efficiently than when, as in the 
Bora method, most of the material — consisting of shredded 
outer phloem — is relatively inert. 
The paste may be ingested directly without any further elab- 
oration. If the drug is to be kept for later use, however, the 
paste is made into small balls or pellets and rolled in a white or 
greyish powder referred to as ‘‘salt’’ or, in Bora, fi’-meh or 
262 
