a tree of this genus as representing their source of paricad, 
but there seemed to be some disagreement amongst the 
several informers. A sterile collection from the tree has 
been determined with reservation by Dr. A. C. Smith as 
Virola elongata (Benth.) Warburg. 
Cotompia: Comisaria del Vaupés, Rio Kananari, at base of Cerro 
Isibukuri, August 4, 1951, Richard Evans Schultes & Isidoro Cabrera 
18278. 
III. 
W hat seems almost certainly to have been this unusual 
narcotic Virola-snuff was apparently first noticed and re- 
ported by the famous German ethnologist, Theodor 
Koch-Griinberg, who explored the northwest Amazon 
and adjacent areas in the upper Orinoco basin in the early 
part of this century. The botanical source of the snuff, 
however, was not ascertained. Writing of the Yekwand 
(Yecuanda) tribe of the Rio Ventuariin Venezuela, Koch- 
Griinberg (Koch-Griinberg: ‘‘Von Roraima zum Ori- 
noco, Ergebnisse einer Reise in Nord-Brasilien und 
Venezuela in den Jahren 1911-13” 8 (1928) 386) reported 
the following concerning this narcotic: 
Of an especial magical importance are the cures during which the 
witch-doctor inhales hakidyfa. This is a magical snuff used exclu- 
sively by the witch-doctors and prepared from the bark of a certain 
tree which, pounded up, is boiled in a small earthenware pot until all 
the water has evaporated and a sediment remains at the bottom of the 
pot. This sediment is toasted in the pot over a slight fire and is then 
finely powdered with the blade of a knife. Then the sorcerer blows a 
little of the powder through a reed (kuraté) into the air. Next he 
snuffs, whilst, with the same reed, he absorbs the powder into each 
nostril successively. The hakudyf/a obviously has a strongly stimulat- 
ing effect, for immediately the witch-doctor begins singing and yell- 
ing wildly, all the while pitching the upper part of his body back- 
wards and forwards. 
Dr. Adolpho Ducke, profound student of the Amazon 
flora for more than half a century, has attributed the 
parica of the upper Rio Negro basin to the leaves of a 
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