Rio Putumayo, which, with its parallel river, the Iga- 
raparana, comprises the major centre of the Witoto In- 
dians (5, 12, 20, 25, 26). Asa result of the nefarious and 
merciless exploitations and slaughter of these Indians 
during the wild rubber boom, this region attracted, at 
least fleetingly, world-wide attention in the early part 
of the present century. The past 40 years, with mission- 
ary contacts, have seen a gradual acculturation of the 
Witotos, and many of their beliefs and customs have 
been altered or have disappeared. This acculturation may 
possibly explain our delay in discovering such an inter- 
esting and unique method of preparing and_ utilizing 
Virola-resin as an hallucinogen. 
During the collecting of the bark from several species 
of Virola, this Witoto assistant informed me that the 
Witotos of his father’s generation ate pellets made of 
cumala resin when they wanted to “‘see and converse with 
the little people’*. Cuma/a, a Peruvian name for several 
species of V7zrola, is employed in the Trapecio A mazonico 
—the Leticia area. The assistant informed me that the 
species of Virola which his people employed did not exist 
or was very rare in the Rio Loretoyacu area, but he did 
describe it as a medium-sized tree, slender, growing well 
above the flood-lands on terra alta. The leaf, according 
to the informant, is ‘‘dry’’ to the appearance, measuring 
about six inches in length, with undulating margins. The 
bark, from which copious red resin exudes, is thin, light 
brown. The Witoto name of the tree in the Rio Kara- 
parana is 00-/'00-na. 
While it was impossible for us to collect a voucher 
specimen in the Rio Loretoyacu, I believe that the spe- 
cies represents Virola theiodora. In 1942, amongst the 
Witotos of the Rio Karaparana region, I collected (R. 2. 
Schultes 38878') Virola theiodora with the annotation that 
' Comisaria del Amazonas, Rio Karaparan4, along path from E] En- 
[ 232 ] 
