Since Saint Benedict has them, must it not be assumed 
that black teeth from eating chim6 are usual, accepted— 
even desirable? The fact seems to lie somewhere between 
black and white, according to Valero (pers. comm.), who 
points out that many people do not clean their teeth, 
and that, therefore, the tobacco stains and discolors them 
without actually turning them black.” 
A well known use of chim6 is mentioned by Reichel- 
Dolmatoff (pers. comm.) in describing chimo (there 
called chimiz) in Colombia. He tells of buying it in the 
market in Cucuta for use in extracting the grub of Der- 
matobia hominis (gusano de monte or nuche), the human 
botfly. The grubs burrow under the skin to develop. 
(Other species of Dermatobia infest animals). The botfly 
is widely distributed in tropical America. 
Gumilla (31), writing of the Orinoco basin in the 18th 
Century, gives explicit directions—the same as are used 
today—for removing the grub with the use of chimo: 
‘*In the center of the inflamed swelling . . . will always 
be seen a kind of water that the grub emits... on it, 
chim6 is put, which is the quintessence of tobacco, and 
lacking chim6, put on it chewed tobacco, with which the 
grub is poisoned... then, pressing the flesh with the 
two thumbs, at some distance from the grub (so as not 
to mash it) and giving a hard squeeze, the grub leaps 
out, whole, and all that needs to be done is to heal the 
hollow it leaves... .”’ 
Venezuelan country folk believe that there is some- 
thing in chim6, chewing tobacco and powdered tobacco 
that kills the grub. What actually happens is that the 
air supply is interrupted. 
There are other uses of chim6 connected with the 
world of insects and other venomous pests, and the same 
uses are mentioned in connection with chewing tobacco. 
Chim6, for example, is applied to the stings of scorpions, 
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