sticodendron, tradition dictates that the drug must be 
taken during the wane of the moon. Yajé, coca and to- 
bacco are doubtlessly present as imported curiosities in 
the bundles of magic-elements of Sibundoy medicine- 
men, but none of these narcotics is used widely by the 
Kamsi people (46). 
Siona: linguistic family J'whano, according to Rivet 
(38), Loukotka (24), Castellvi (8), Ortiz (26). 
Inhabitants of the Comisaria del Putumayo, between 
the Sucumbios and Guamiiés Rivers, these Indians are 
allied linguistically and culturally to the Tukanoan tribes 
of the Vaupés, from which region they probably came, 
perhaps at an earlier date than the only other western 
Tukanoan group, the Koregwahes. They have lived in 
their present locality, however, at least since Colonial 
times and have probably adopted some of the narcotics 
and stimulants from their non-’Tukanoan neighbors. 
The Sionas use tobacco in the form of cigars and con- 
centrated extract (2). They prepare tobacco in a most 
curious way which is, in reality, a combination of the 
cigar-making of the Vaupés Tukanos and the ambil- 
making of the Witotos: they add peels of unripened 
bananas and cacao husks, burned and sifted, to the ex- 
tract. Furthermore, they smoke cigars and use the long, 
communal ceremonial cigar of the Tukanos of the 
Vaupés. But they do not, as do the Tukanos and Wito- 
tos, use coca, the place of which is filled by yoco. 
Yoco, a stimulant rich in caffeine, is one of the prin- 
cipal economic plants of the Sionas. Schultes believes 
that the origin of the use of yoco may be Kechwa, since 
its name, used by all the Indians of the Putumayo re- 
gardless of their linguistic affinities, is apparently derived 
from Inga, a splinter tribe, once numerous, located in 
the region of Mocoa, speaking a dialect of Kcuadorean 
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