NARCOTIC PLANTS AND STIMULANTS SAFFORD. 413 



Villavicencio says (in his Geografia de la Republica del Ecuador, 

 p. 373, 1858) : 



When I have partaken of aya-huasca, my head has Immediately begun to 

 swim; then I have seemed to enter on an aerial voyage, wherein I thought I 

 saw the most charming landscapes, great cities, lofty towers, beautiful parks, 

 and other delightful things. Then all at once I found myself deserted in a 

 forest and attacked by beasts of prey, against which I tried to defend myself, 

 Lastly, I began to come round, but with a feeling of excessive drowsiness, 

 headache, and sometimes general malaise. 



This is all I have seen and learned of caapi or aya-huasca. I regret being 

 unable to tell what is the peculiar narcotic principle that produces such ex- 

 traordinary effects. Opium and hemp are its most obvious analogues, but caapi 

 would seem to operate on the nervous system far more rapidly and violently 

 than either. Some traveler who may follow my steps with greater resources 

 at his command Will, it is to be hoped, be able to bring away materials 

 adequate for the complete analysis of this curious plant.* 



In the above account the description of the hallucinations caused 

 by the narcotic caapi, or aya-huasca, a remarkable parallel will be 

 found with similar effects of Lophophor'a Willimnsii, the narcotic 

 cactus of the Aztecs already described. 



ILEX TEAS. 



Among the important stimulants, or restoratives, of ancient America 

 were tea-like infusions and decoctions prepared from several species 

 of holly, or ilex — in southern Brazil and Paraguay, from Ilex para- 

 guaHensis, commonly known as yerba mate ; in Eucador, an ilex with 

 much larger leaves, called guayusa ; and in Florida, the Carolinas, 

 and Texas, Ilex vomitoria, called cassine or yaupon, the scource of the 

 celebrated ceremonial " black drink." All of these owe their stimu- 

 lating virtues to an alkaloid, which has been identified with caffein. 

 Prepared as a simple infusion by pouring hot water on the leaves, 

 as in brewing the yerba mate, the effect is very much like tea itself. 

 When boiled for a long time, as is the custom with the guayusa and 

 cassine, the decoction has the effect of an emetic. It is interesting 

 to note that in localities so widely remote as Ecuador and Florida 

 the aboriginal inhabitants habitually used decoctions of ilex as an 

 emetic and believed themselves benefited by vomiting. That the 

 stimulating properties of two very closely allied plants like Ilex 

 paraffuariensis and /. vo^nitorm should have been independently dis- 

 covered by tribes so widely separated as the Guaranis of South 

 America and the Creeks of Florida is also remarkable, and especially 

 in view of the fact that the leaves of the plants in question Avere 

 subjected by the natives to a similar preliminary process of scorching 

 before they were used. Another noteworthy feature connected with 

 the black drink is the taboo imposed upon women by various tribes 



1 Spruce, op. cit., p. 424—425. 



