Chindoy sat on a stool facing the large enamel bowl 
of biaxvti and the wall; the young woman and child re- 
mained on their mat on the floor; and the young man 
and I sat on stools around the now dead fire. 
A ceremony was performed over the bowl of biavt 
before any was taken. The medicine-man alternately 
chanted, hummed and whistled a tune of three or four 
staceato notes for about ten minutes. The chanting was 
solely of the syllables bia-wi-bia-avi-bia-wi-t-bia-xi-bia-wi-i 
.... There was no pause in the chanting, humming and 
whistling. This was accompanied by rattling a brush, 
bacnenaisd (bdena ‘priest’, wnaisd ?), made of dried leaves 
known as wa-tra-cinga or picdnga. This is a ‘‘broom to 
sweep away bakna binjia or malaire’’, an airborne disease- 
causing spirit. The oblong-lanceolate leaves are from a 
low, unidentified grass of the eastern lowlands. 
After the initial ceremony over the large bow] of biawtt 
was complete, Chindoy put some of the drug into a braavit 
ftman kwastém, or medida, a ‘measure’ of about 150 ce. 
This kwastém (‘little bowl’) is a small, very hard bow], 
made probably from a small-fruited variety of the cala- 
bash tree, Crescentia Cujete L. With the measure of 
biavti held in the hand, the chanting and humming was 
repeated. He dipped a crucifix from one of his necklaces 
into the drink and then crossed himself with it. He com- 
pleted the ceremony by repeating the sign of the cross 
over the measure of brawit. 
He drank the biavtt quickly, spitting and shaking his 
head because of the disagreeable bitterness. He followed 
it with half ajigger (20-25 cc.) of aguardiente (‘whiskey’) 
to wash his mouth, but then he swallowed it, too. With 
similar ceremony, the medicine-man offered me a meas- 
ure of biaxvti which I drank quickly and followed with the 
more pleasant taste of a few drops of rum which he had 
advised me to bring for this purpose. A third measure 
[ 132 ] 
