lubrina was employed in preparing an intoxicating snuff known 
as céhil or huilca, used in former times in parts of northern 
Argentina, Paraguay and possibly in Bolivia and Peru (3). 
Our earliest botanical knowledge of niopo or yopo — as the 
snuff is called in the Orinoco — goes back to 1801, when von 
Humboldt and Bonpland encountered its use in Colombia and 
Venezuela (4). Kunth reported briefly on their observations: 
‘*Ex seminibus tritis calci vivae admixtis fit tabacum nobile 
quo Indi Otomacos et Guajibos utuuntur.’” Humboldt iden- 
tified the source as Piptadenia Niopo, which he believed repre- 
sented the same species as Willdenow’s /nga Niopo. Hum- 
boldt, like the earlier explorer of the Orinoco, Padre Gumilla, 
erroneously believed that the intoxicating effects of the snuff 
could be attributed to the alkaline admixture and not to the 
seeds employed in elaborating the powder. 
The next major botanical encounter with the drug was that of 
Richard Spruce, who met with its use in June, 1854 amongst the 
Guahibos of the upper Orinoco (5). Spruce wrote that his 
‘*specimens of the leaves, flowers and fruit agree so well with 
Kunth’s description of Acacia Niopo that | cannot doubt their 
being the same species; especially as I have traced the tree all 
the way from the Amazon to the Orinoco, and found it 
everywhere identical.’"’ An important point in Spruce’s 
meticulous observation of the preparation of the snuff, how- 
ever, is his statement that ‘‘there is no admixture of 
quicklime.”’ 
Spruce found ‘*. . .a wandering horde of Guahibo Indians 
.. encamped on the svannas of Maypures [on the 
Orinoco] and .. . an old man grinding Niopo seeds .. . . The 
seeds, being first roasted, are powdered on a wooden platter, 
nearly the shape of a watch-glass, but rather longer than broad 
(914 inches by 8 inches). It is held on the knee by a broad, thin 
handle, which is grasped in the left hand, while the fingers of 
the right hold a small spatula or pestle of the hard wood of the 
Palo de arco (Tecoma sp.) with which the seeds are 
crushed ... . For taking the snuff, they use an apparatus made 
of the leg-bones of herons .. . in the shape of the letter Y, or 
something like a tuning-fork, and the two upper tubes are 
tipped with small black perforated knobs (the endocarps of a 
274 
