428 NOTES OF A BOTANIST CHAP. 



suspended a few odoriferous rhizomes of a sedge 

 (Kyllingia odorata). Rhizomes of the same sedge, 

 or of an allied species, are in use among the Indians 

 throughout the Amazon and Orinoco. They render 

 the wearer secure from the bad wish and evil eye 

 of his enemies. 



For taking the snuff they use an apparatus made 

 of the leg-bones of herons or other long-shanked birds 

 put together in the shape of the letter Y, or some- 

 thing like a tuning-fork, and the two upper tubes are 

 tipped with small black perforated knobs (the endo- 

 carps of a palm). The lower tube being inserted 

 in the snuff-box and the knobs in the nostrils, the 

 snuff is forcibly inhaled, with the effect of thoroughly 

 narcotising a novice, or indeed a practised hand, 

 if taken in sufficient quantity ; but this endures 

 only a few minutes, and is followed by a soothing 

 influence, which is more lasting. 



The Guahibo had a bit of caapi hung from his 

 neck, along with the snuff-box, and as he ground 

 his niopo he every now and then tore off a strip of 

 caapi with his teeth and chewed it with evident 

 satisfaction. " With a chew of caapi and a pinch 

 of niopo," said he, in his broken Spanish, "one feels 

 so good ! No hunger no thirst no tired ! " From 

 the same man I learnt that caapi and niopo were 

 used by all the nations on the upper tributaries of 

 the Orinoco, i.e. on the Guaviare, Vichada, Meta, 

 Sipapo, etc. 



I had previously (in 1851) purchased of a Brazilian 

 trader at Manaos an apparatus for taking niopo 

 snuff rather different from that of the Guahibos. 

 He had brought it from the river Puriis, where it 

 had been used by the Catauixi Indians. My note 



