Pinedo (pers. comm.), a Venezuelan in his eighties, 
reminisces: ‘‘Sixty years ago, I saw mature ladies of the 
aristocracy of Mérida using elegant containers of sterling 
silver with little spatulas (pajuelas), also of silver, at- 
tached by a silver chain, that they used to put a small 
amount of chim6_on the teeth.” 
Depons (22) observes: **The liquid which is expressed 
from the tobacco... is boiled to the consistency of a 
syrup. It becomes by this means an object of great con- 
sumption among the planters of the interior of Terra 
Firme, principally in the part of Varinas. The women 
have a small box, which they wear like a watch, sus- 
pended to one side at the end of a cord. Instead of a key 
it is furnished with a little spoon, with which they help 
themselves from time to time of this juice, relishing it 
in their mouths like a sweetmeat. This corresponds to 
the chewing of tobacco among our sailors. ”’ 
It is interesting to compare the above account with 
Billings’ (10) description of snuff-dipping among young 
ladies of fashion in Virginia in the late 19th Century: 
‘*For snuff, the ladies have very nice round boxes with 
lids, which they always carry with them full of black 
snuff highly but pleasingly flavored. They also carry 
little brushes or sticks about three inches long with plia- 
ble ends; these they wet in the mouth, then dip into 
their snuff-box, and then place them in the mouth out- 
side of the gums and rub earnestly for two or three 
minutes.” He adds that one of the prettiest belles of 
Winchester asked him to dip with her, and a daughter 
of an ex-Governor of the State, ‘handing me a silver- 
tipped brush and opening a rosewood snuff-box richly 
inlaid with gold, politely asked me to ‘dip’ with her.**” 
CHIMO: HOW? 
A person using chim6 is usually said to ‘‘eat”’ (comer), 
[ 16 | 
