San Benito tiene sus dientes negros/De puro comer chimé alinta’o/ 
Bebe aguardiente en los eneros/ Y por eso lo vemos rasca’o. 
Saint Benedict has black teeth/From eating flavored chim6/ 
He drinks aguardiente in January (his feast-time)/ 
And so we see him drunk. 
San Benito viene de Boconé/ Muy feliz se siente/ Tiene sus dientes 
negros de puro comer chimé/Viene a bailar con toda la gente. 
Saint Benedict comes from Boconé/He feels very happy/He has 
black teeth just from eating chim6/He comes to dance with 
everybody. 
These and other verses of Andean origin (Valero, pers. comm.), 
indicate how admirable it is to have black teeth from eating chimoé: 
perhaps there is the implication that a man who can buy enough 
chim6 to discolor his teeth is to be respected. (See betel and black 
teeth, below. ) 
14. Black teeth. Many observers of the use of tobacco, coca and 
betel have commented on dark-stained or black teeth of users. 
Whether they are discolored or really black, is not certain from the 
descriptions of these observers. 
Patifio (48) quotes Las Casas (18) on Indians chewing coca, ‘ 
that having the teeth very white commonly, a crust is put on them 
blacker than jet (azabache).”’ 
Humboldt (36), in describing the Goajiro use of lime alone as a 
stimulant, states that lime blackens teeth. Métraux and Kirchoff (45) 
report that these Indians formerly chewed coca with lime, thus 
blackening the teeth. Reichel-Dolmatoff (51), on the other hand, 
states of the Kogi: ““Vhe blackened teeth which many men have do 
not result from coca but from the consumption of this concentrated 
paste (of tobacco).’’ Schultes (55) observes that the Witoto have dis- 
colored teeth and that their coca is mixed with ashes, not lime; they 
also use tobacco concentrate. ‘‘The constant use of these two nar- 
cotics,’’ he reports, “affects perceptibly the sense of taste and dis- 
colors the teeth.’’ As these representative samplings of opinion in- 
dicate, both lime and tobacco are suggested as causes of black or 
stained teeth, 
In addition there remains the question of ‘‘black’’ versus ‘‘dark- 
stained’’. With the Witoto and Kogi, where tobacco as well as coca 
is used, dark-staining seems to be the result. Perhaps, as Valero says 
of chim6 users, this is due simply to lack of cleaning the teeth. 
Alternatively, lime or lime and coca seem to be responsible for a kind 
of black crust—a really black tooth. 
Perhaps a short account of the use of betel will throw light on the 
question of blackening of the teeth. 
[ 49 ] 
