latter case an extremely strong product. The aroma con- 
sists of sarrapia (tonka bean) or cura.” In the west (el 
Occidente) and the lower plains (Bajo Llano), chimé re- 
places chewing tobacco. —‘On Aug. 2 of the same year 
(1781) m6, chim6 and wrao were included in the mo- 
nopoly’ (Codazzi). Apparently an Andean word, in- 
cluded in Terreros’ Dictionary. ... Synonym, chimi.° 
‘On it chimi is placed which is the quintessence of to- 
bacco’ (Gumilla, II, 222—2nd ed’n)”’. 
The notes on this definition make it obvious that the 
‘what?’ of chim6 is not a simple matter. Describing its 
preparation by the primitive method, used in household 
manufacture (fdbrica casera), from m6 to bajote—trom 
basic ingredient to packet purchased by consumer—seems 
the best way of clarifying exactly 
. 
‘what?’ chimo is. 
The basic ingredient of chimo is tobacco in the form 
of m6 or moo. M6 is a thickish brown-black extract of 
tobacco from the cooking of tobacco leaves in water. 
In the 19th Century, Diaz (24) and others, describing 
the Venezuelan cura negra (black cure) of tobacco—as 
opposed to the more usual cura seca (dry cure)—mention 
mo and chimo as by-products of this process. 
The cura negra is essentially a process of compression, 
fermentation and sweating, during which, from ropes of 
tobacco made into huge balls, there is distilled a thick 
extract (ambir). The method of this cure is very similar 
to processes employed in the production of Perique in 
Louisiana and Anduyo (or Andullo) in Santo Domingo 
(4, 12, 53). 
Diaz adds that chimo results when ambir is boiled down 
to a jelly-like consistency and “‘is used. . . instead of 
chewing tobacco, taking portions into the mouth, dis- 
solving it there as though it were a caramel”’. 
Today, the chim6-maker (chimocro or, less frequently, 
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