NARCOTICS AND STIMULANTS 447 



Rio Negro, and I sent a quantity of it to Kew 

 for analysis. My account of it was published in 

 Hooker's Journal of Botany for July 1853, and 

 I here reproduce it. The leaves of ipaclii are pulled 

 off the branches, one by one, and roasted on the 

 mandiocca-oven, then pounded in a cylindrical 

 mortar, 5 or 6 feet in height, made of the lower 

 part of the trunk of the Pupunha or Peach Palm 

 (Guilielmia speciosa), the hard root forming the 

 base and the soft inside being scooped out. It 

 is made of this excessive length because of the 

 impalpable nature of the powder, which would 

 otherwise fly up and choke the operator ; and it is 

 buried a sufficient depth in the ground to allow of 

 its being easily worked. The pestle is of propor- 

 tionate length, and is made of any hard wood. 

 When the leaves are sufficiently pounded, the 

 powder is taken out with a small cuya fastened to 

 the end of an arrow. A small quantity of tapioca, 

 in powder, is mixed with it to give it consistency, 

 and it is usual to add pounded ashes of Imba-iiba 

 or Drum tree (Cecropia pcltata], which are saline 

 and antiseptic. With a chew of ipadii in his cheek, 

 renewed at intervals of a few hours, an Indian will 

 go for days without food and sleep. 



In April 1852 I assisted, much against my will, 

 at an Indian feast in a little rocky island at the 

 foot of the falls of the- Rio Negro ; for I had 

 gone clown the falls to have three or four days' 

 herborising, and I found my host the pilot of the 

 cataracts engaged in the festivities, which neither 

 he nor my man would leave until the last drop of 

 cauim (coarse cane- or plantain-spirit) was consumed. 

 During the two days the feast lasted I was nearly 



