CH. xxv NARCOTICS AND STIMULANTS 419 



is such a family likeness in all the Indian festivities 

 of Tropical America that, allowing for slight local 

 variations, the description of one might serve for 

 all. There is no more graphic account oi a native 

 feast than that by old Wafer, of one he saw on the 

 Isthmus of Darien (New Voyage and Description of 

 the Isthmus of America, p. 363). 



In the course of the night, the young men par- 

 took of caapi five or six times, in the intervals 

 between the dances ; but only a few of them at a 

 time, and very few drank of it twice. The cup- 

 bearer who must be a man, for no woman can 

 touch or taste caapi starts at a short run from the 

 opposite end of the house, with a small calabash 

 containing about a teacupiul of caapi in each hand, 

 muttering " Mo-mo-mo-mo-mo " as he runs, and 

 gradually sinking down until at last his chin nearly 

 touches his knees, when he reaches out one of his 

 cups to the man who stands ready to receive it, 

 and when that is drunk off, then the other cup. 



In two minutes or less after drinking it, its effects 

 begin to be apparent. The 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 

 reckless fury, seizes whatever arms are at hand, 

 his murucii, 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 ten 

 minutes the excitement has passed off, and the 

 Indian grows calm, but appears exhausted. \Yere 

 he at home in his hut, he would sleep off the 



