412 ANNUAL EEPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1916. 



our southeastern Indians, and the same is true of the taboos imposed 

 upon the women, who were not permitted to touch or taste either the 

 caapi here described or the black drink of our southeastern Indians, 

 which will be described below. 



In presenting the caapi the cupbearer runs quickly from the oppo- 

 site end of the house with a small calabash containing about a tea- 

 cupful in each hand, muttering " Mo-mo-mo-mo-mo " as he runs, and 

 gradually sinking down until his chin nearly touches his knees, he 

 presents one of the cups and then the other to the man for whom it 

 is intended. 



In two minutes or less after drinking it, its effects begin to be apparent. 

 Tlie Indian turns deadly pale, trembles in every limb, and horror is in his 

 aspect. Suddenly contrary symptoms succeed ; he bursts into a perspiration, 

 and seems possessed with a reckless fury, seizes whatever arms are at hand, 

 his murucu, bow and arrows, or cutlass, and rushes to the doorway, where he 

 inflicts violent blows on the ground or the doorposts, calling out all the while, 

 "Thus would I do to mine enemy (naming him by his name) were this he!" 

 In about 10 minutes the excitement has passed off and the Indian grows calm, 

 but appears exhausted. Were he at home in his hut he would sleep off the 

 remaining fumes, but now he must shake off his drowsiness by renewing the 

 dance.^ 



Spruce afterwards witnessed the use of this plant by the Indians 

 inhabitating the northeastern Andes of Peru, and saw the plant 

 itself growing in the villages of Canelos and Puca-yacu, inhabited 

 chiefly by the Zaparos. Here it was called by the Quichua name Aya- 

 huasca, w^hich signifies " Dead man's vine." The following is a sum- 

 mary of what he learned concerning it at Puca-yacu : 



Aya-huasca is used by the Zaparos, Angut^ros, Mazanes, and other tribes 

 precisely as I saw caapi used on the Uaupes, viz, as a narcotic stimulant at 

 their feasts. It is also drunk by the medicine man, when called on to adjudi- 

 cate in a dispute or quarrel, to give the proper answer to an embassy, to dis- 

 cover the plants of an enemy, to tell if strangei's are coming, to ascertain if 

 wives are unfaithful, in the case of a sick man to tell who has bewitched 

 him, etc. 



All who have partaken of it feel first vertigo, then as if they rose up into 

 air and were floating about. The Indians say they see beautiful lakes, woods 

 laden with fruit, birds of brilliant plumage, etc. Soon the scene changes; 

 they see savage beasts preparing to seize them ; they can no longer hold 

 themselves up, but fall to the ground. At this crisis the Indian wakes up 

 from his trance, and if he were not held down in his hammock by force, he 

 would spring to his feet, seize his arms, and attack the first person who 

 stood in his way. Then he becomes drowsy, and finally sleeps. If he be a 

 medicine man who has taken it, v/hen he has slept off the fumes he recalls 

 all he saw in his trance, and thereupon deduces the prophecy, divination, 

 or what not required of him. Boys are not allowed to taste aya-huasca before 

 they reach puberty, nor women at any age, precisely as on the Uaupes. 



1 Richard Spruce. Notes of a Botanist on the Amazon and Andes, 2 : 419-420. 1 908. 



