I made contact with an old man in the village, who was 
considered knowledgeable about plants and medicines. After 
some time, I asked him about the use of tsontinba’’k’o and 
yage. He informed me that hardly anyone uses this medicine 
anymore because it is considered very dangerous. He disa- 
vowed any knowledge of vagé or of taking tsontinba’'k’o for 
visions. Since it seemed no more information would be forth- 
coming, I asked the old Kofan to demonstrate the preparation 
of covi tsontinba’’k’o for me and my companion, a Kamsa 
Indian from the Sibundoy Valley. He reluctantly agreed to do it 
and we decided to drink the drug at his small hut. In view of the 
complete lack of firsthand experiments with this Brunfelsia, | 
include the following account of the effects of B. chiricaspi: 
December 3, 1968: Village of Santa Rosa, Rio Guamués, Com- 
isaria del Putumayo, Colombia. 
**My companion, Pedro, and I arrived at Santa Rosa from San 
Antonio well before sunset on the night our Kofan curaca had 
chosen to prepare covi tsontinba’’k’o. The curaca did not return 
to the village until nearly dark, carrying with him a handful of 
scraped bark which he had collected in the nearby forest. He said 
the plant is not common and he had had difficulty finding it. He 
extracted the juice of the greenish brown bark in a cup of cold 
water by wetting the bark and squeezing it repeatedly until the 
liquid became a murky light brown color. He then handed each of 
us half a cupful. The drink had a very bitter taste and pungent 
odor. We drank it quickly and sat down on the front porch of the 
curaca’s hut. 
“The effects of the drug appeared within about ten minutes. | 
first felt a tingling sensation in my lips, followed soon by the same 
sensation in my fingertips. This felt exactly like the feeling ex- 
perienced when your leg “‘falls asleep’’, when the blood rushes 
back. Along with the tingling, I felta pronounced vibrating in the 
affected parts. 
‘The tingling soon spread into my mouth and upwards into my 
face; later into my hands and feet, tongue, elbows, and shoul- 
ders. After about an hour, the sensations were felt generally 
throughout my body, especially in my back, legs, face, lips and 
hands. There was a definite progression of the tingling from the 
base of my spine upwards towards the back of the neck, with 
ever-increasing intensity which centered at the base of my skull. 
‘From the beginning | felt a strong urge to expectorate period- 
ically and later realized that I was actually frothing at the mouth. 
In spite of the extraordinary sensations running through my 
body, I remained mentally lucid. I felt quite agitated from the 
306 
