NARCOTICS AND STIMULANTS 429 



on it (as taken down from his account) is as 

 follows : 



The Catauixi's use niopo snuff as a narcotic 

 stimulant, precisely as the Guahibos of Venezuela, 

 and as the Muras and other nations of the Amazon, 

 where it is called parica. For absorbing parica 

 by the nose, a bent tube is made of a bird's shank- 

 bone, cut in two, and the pieces joined by wrap- 

 ping, at such an angle that one end being applied 

 to the mouth, the other reaches the nostrils. A 

 portion of snuff is then put into the tube and blown 

 with great force up the nose. A clyster-pipe is made, 

 on the same principle, of the long shank-bone of 

 the tuyuyii {Mycteria americana). The effect of 

 parica, taken as snuff, is to speedily induce a sort 

 of intoxication, resembling in its symptoms (as 

 described to me in this instance) that produced by 

 the fungus Amanita muscaria. Taken in injection, 

 it is a purge, more or less violent according to the 

 dose. When the Catauixi is about to set forth on 

 the chase, he takes a small injection of parica, and 

 administers another to his dog, the effect on both 

 being (it is saicl) to clear their vision and render 

 them more alert ! 



Herndon {Valley of the .-luiazon, p. 318) gives 

 the following account of the use of parica among 

 the Munclruciis, on the river Tapajox, which he 

 derived from an intelligent Frenchman (M. Maugin) 

 who had traded among them. They powder the 

 seeds of parica, make the powder into a paste, and 

 repulverise a portion whenever they want to take 

 it as snuff. Two quills of the royal heron, joined 

 side by side, make a double tube, which is applied 

 to the nostrils and the powder snuffed up with 



