which, however, seemed to be accompanied by a muscu- 
lar excitation, except in the extremities of the hands and 
feet. At about nine-thirty, probably, I fell into a fitful 
sleep which continued, with frequent awakenings, until 
morning. The strong headache over the eyes lasted until 
noon. A profuse and uncomfortable sweating, especially 
of the armpits, and what might have been a slight fever 
lasted from about six o’clock all through the night. There 
was a strong dilation of the pupils during the first few 
hours of the experiment. No food was taken and no to- 
bacco was smoked from the time the experiment began 
until one o’clock in the afternoon—that is, for twenty 
hours during the course of the experiment. 
Since this experiment was performed under primitive 
conditions in the jungle, all observations had to be made by 
myself. In spite of its many and serious shortcomings, the 
experiment indicates the narcotic strength of the snuff. 
The dose employed by the medicine-men is sufficient 
to put them into a deep but disturbed sleep, during which 
delirious mumblings or, sometimes, shouts are emitted; 
visual hallucinations or dreams are reported to accompany 
the narcotic sleep very often. These are “‘interpreted’’ 
by an assistant who awaits the prophetic or divinatory 
sounds. Some medicine-men, it is said, are affected more 
violently than others and uncontrollable twitching of the 
fingers and facial muscles and a popping of the eyes are 
not infrequent symptoms. There is one report of the 
death, about twenty years ago, of a Puinave medicine-man 
on the Inirida River, whilst he was under the influence of 
ydkee. Some payés (witch-doctors) are said to take ydkee 
as frequently as four or five times a month; usually, so 
far as I have been able to ascertain, one doctor will not 
undergo the diagnosis-narcosis with V7rola-snuff more 
than once a month. All reports would seem to indicate 
that it is a dangerous narcotic. 
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