be orozus (identity uncertain; Pittier lists two plants 
of this name, both of the Asclepiadaceae and both with 
attributed medicinal properties for the respiratory tract). 
Other leaves added are rose geranium (aroma, Pelargon- 
tum odoratissimum), sweet marjoram (mejorana, Origan- 
um Majorana), sweet basil (albahaca, Ocimum Basilicum) 
(Valero, pers. comm.) and curia (Justicia caracasana). 
(See note on cura.) 
It may be of interest to add to this description of the 
chim6 box and its use acommentary by Hiram Bingham 
(11) who met an old man in Acarigua, Portuguesa State. 
‘*He pulled out of his pocket a little horn box about as 
large as a walnut. It was partly filled with a nasty black 
nicotine paste which is made hereabouts by mixing the 
essence of tobacco with a mineral salt found in Los An- 
des. With a small stick picked up from the ground, he 
extracted a bit of paste the size of a pea and carefully 
scraped it off on the back of his upper front teeth. This, 
he assured me, was far better than smoking. I found that 
the use of this paste is quite common in the towns on the 
eastern slope of the Andes.”’ 
Here is a case of first hand observation plus evidence 
of some reading or other enquiry. The details of the 
stick and the upper front teeth may be in error or may 
be an example of a variant of the usual procedure, but 
illustrate the difficulty of getting consistent information 
on a folk custom. 
5. Beliefs and Attitudes. The whole field of the use 
of tobacco is involved in a consideration of beliefs and 
attitudes regarding chim6, because parallels are to be 
found in chewing, smoking and snuffing tobacco. There 
are also similarities with the use of coca (’rythroaylon 
Coca) and other narcotic drugs of South America. 
A chimo user, for example, asked why he eats chimo, 
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