Cooper, 1946). Datura Stramonium subsp. ferow (1.) 
Barclay has been used medicinally as an anesthetic 
(Pérez de Barradas, 1957). We may assume that the 
machi, like her counterparts in other cultures, has a wide 
knowledge of this plant and all its properties, including 
its hallocinogenic and trance-inducing effects. 
It has only recently been confirmed that Latua is em- 
ployed by the macht as a psychoactive agent. This was 
revealed to Sr. Rolando ‘Toro, a psychologist from San- 
tiago, who attended a machitun in Chiloé, in which Latua 
played an integral part of the ceremony. His account 
follows: 
Latua is used in an infusion by the shamans or curanderos, who 
ingest it during nocturnal ceremonies of a magical nature. After 
drinking the infusion at 20 to 30 minute intervals, they slowly 
begin to sing and dance in a circle. ‘The chants are variations on 
the word latué: 
Latué — latué — la — tué 
La - la - la — tué 
Tué 
La — tué 
La-a a-a (slowly) 
La — tué — la — tué — la — tué (fast). 
Their movements are monotonous and consist in marking the 
rhythm by stomping their feet on the ground, along with move- 
ments of the head with the arms hanging like wings. The move- 
ments are not graceful but rather rigid, like those of catatonia. 
The dances last for four to six hours with intermittent prayers: 
“Con un tizon ardiendo 
Cristo quema el mal 
de vientro de N.”’ 
With a firebrand 
Christ burns the evil 
from the belly of N. (here the name of the patient). 
The cure consists in driving the demons from the body of the 
patient. Todo this, he is slapped with branches of pa/qui (Cestrum 
Parqui L’ Her., Solanaceae) and is made to drink a potion which 
makes him vomit. Then his face is covered with the genital skin 
of a goat. The cure embraces every type of physical and mental 
infirmity and is always given at night. These meetings are equiva- 
lent to a witches’ sabbath with curative ends. 
[ 81 ] 
