Despite our inability to offer a specific determination 
of the plant at the present time, we feel that the data 
set forth below are sufficiently interesting and the cer- 
tainty of the generic identification firm enough to war- 
rant publishing these ethnobotanical notes. 
The ethnographic literature on the Gé Indians of cen- 
tral Brazil contains several references to the use of plants 
as contraceptives (Nimuendaju 1939, 1942; Banner 1961 ; 
Dreyfus 1963). Two of these groups, the Sherente (Ni- 
muendaji 1942: 87) are reported to take substances oral- 
ly to prevent pregnancy. Dreyfus, who spent five and a 
half months with the Cayap6o where Banner also worked 
and where we conducted twelve months of field research 
in 1962-68, found only * 
niques in practice. The native term which Banner re- 
‘external’ contraceptive tech- 
corded for those plants believed by the Cayapo to prevent 
conception is identical to that published by Dreyfus 
(1968: 58), and confirmed by our own work. It is me- 
hra-het-dja, which translates literally as ‘the child-not 
thing.” Since neither of the authors identified the plants 
botanically, all the information that we have from their 
published reports is that the leaf, root, or vine of certain 
plants are chewed or made into a brew which must be 
drunk or rubbed over the body of a woman who wishes 
to avoid pregnancy. 
I collected specimens of two plants to which the In- 
dians attribute contraceptive properties. One of these, 
an orchid, Rodriguezia secunda, is used only externally. 
To produce the desired effects, the pseudobulb is crushed 
and rubbed over the woman’s body. It is not known 
universally to the Cayap6é but is the private lore of a 
shaman, or curer, Who may demand an exhorbitant fee 
for his knowledge and services. The preferred payment 
today is in civilized goods: beads, blankets, knives, and 
other hardware. 
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