396 ANNUAL EEPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1916. 



THE COHOBA TREE STILL PERSISTS IN HAITI. 



That a substance with the intoxicating effects of cohoba should 

 have been identified with tobacco seems strange ; but if not tobacco, 

 what could have been its origin ? Is the custom of taking a narcotic 

 snuff by means of bifurcated tube still in existence in any part of 

 America ? If so, from what plant is the snuff prepared, and is this 

 plant to be found growing on the island of Haiti? These questions 

 may be answered as follows: The custom of taking a narcotic snuff' 

 still prevails in various localities of South America, showing that 

 at one time it must have been widely spread. In inhaling it some 

 tribes used bifurcated tubes which correspond very closely with the 

 descriptions of those used in Hispaniola (fig. 4). The plant from 

 which the snuff is derived is Piptadenia feregnna., a tree which 

 grows both spontaneously and in cultivation on the banks of the 

 Orinoco and Amazon Rivers and their tributaries. This tree does 

 grow on the island of Hispaniola, or Haiti, as well as upon the neigh- 

 boring island of Porto 

 Rico and several other of 

 the Antilles, and — most 

 interesting and convinc- 



FiG. 4.-Forked tube for inhaling narcotic Piptadenia. ■ ^f ^jj f ^^^^ connected 



snuff through the nose. => _ 



with it — it still bears the 

 name cohoba, which was applied in ancient times both to the snuff 

 itself and to the ceremonial practice of using it. 



In connection with his studies of the plants used by the aborigines 

 of America, the writer encountered various narratives of travelers in 

 South America in which ceremonial snuff taking by savage tribes by 

 means of bifurcated tubes was described. In all cases the snuff was 

 made from the seeds of Piftadenia feregrina^ the tree called Cohoba 

 in Haiti. Among the writers who bear testimony to this practice 

 are Padre Gumilla, in his Orinoco Ilustrado (1741) ; M. de la Con- 

 damine in his interesting Relation, published in the Memoires de 

 lAcademie Royale des Sciences, Annee 1745; Humboldt and Bon- 

 pland in their Voyage aux Regions Equinoxiales (1819), and Spix 

 and Martins, Reise in Brasilien (1831). One of the most interesting- 

 features in connection with the use of the seeds of Piptadenia is 

 described by Spix and Martins — the use of an infusion made from 

 them as an enema. This was accomplished by means of pear-shaped 

 rubber syringes, which, according to M. de la Condamine, were passed 

 around to guests at ceremonial feasts. In various parts of South 

 America the snuff was called niopa, iiupa, curupa, curuba, and 

 parica; and a similar or identical snuff, also made from Piptadenia 

 seeds, was called cebil or sebil in Argentina and vilca, huillca, or 

 willca in Peru. 



