although the word ‘‘chew’’ (mascar) is often used. A 
portion of chimé is called ‘‘a chew’’ (wna mascada) as 
well as ‘‘a meal’’ (wna comida) or lump or ball (bolea, 
derived from the vocabulary of tobacco curing). 
A man offering another chimo usually says, ‘‘Coma 
chimé, compadre!’’ (‘‘Kat chimo, old chap!’’) (27). 
As might be expected in a custom as common as that 
of eating chimé in Andean Venezuela, there is great 
variation in details of 1) method of use, 2) types of pack- 
aging, 3) buying and selling, 4) accessories of use, and 
5) beliefs and attitudes associated with chimo. 
Examination of these details will present a clear pic- 
ture of chim6 as used in modern Venezuela. 
1. Method of use. An amount of chimé6 about the size 
of a pea is placed in the mouth with the index finger, to 
adhere to the inner surface of the lower front teeth.” As 
the paste slowly dissolves, the saliva produced by its 
sharpness accumulates and must be expectorated. 
If the paste be carried in a chimé box (cajeta), the 
chim6 is removed with the tip of the forefinger; if in its 
original package (bqjote), the amount wanted is either 
bitten off and transferred to the finger or is pinched off. 
A chim6 user is seldom without a mascada in his 
mouth: he may consume as many as three bqjotes a day 
(39). He takes it in the morning to prevent hunger 
pangs, if he must wait some time for a meal (para que 
el estbmago aguante). Dupouy (27) mentions the com- 
mon habit of sleeping with a pellet in the mouth. 
Chim6 is an invariable part of all social gathering and 
observances: saints’ days, weddings, baptisms, funerals, 
or community celebrations at Christmas, Holy Week, 
feasts of community patron saints, ete. 
Lewin (41) significantly describes the use and effect 
of chim6 as reported by those who take it: “‘A very con- 
[17 ] 
