ror] NARCOTICS AND STIMULANTS 243 
These bags contained the oulin which, if not continually kept dry 
by this means, would melt. The following procedure given by Brett 
(Br, 276), as quoted from McClintock, was adopted by the Akawai 
for preparing the chewing mixture: “They take from the stalk as 
many green leaves as will cover the pan on which their cassava is 
baked. Over this laver of tobacco leaves they sprinkle the salt (oulin), 
then another layer of green leaves, and salt as before. This must be re- 
peated until the whole becomes 1 inch or more in thickness. A slow 
fire is then applied to the pan, and after the cake, if such it may be 
called, is partially heated, it is removed and distributed among a 
number of small calabashes, where it remains until ‘ quids’ be in 
demand; not, however, to be chewed, but to be kept simply between 
the lips. By this method the teeth are preserved, hunger appeased 
(Indians always assure me of this), and thirst’ is quenched.” 
B. Brown gives a none too pleasant description of Indians in- 
dulging in the habit: “ Every man and nearly every youth [Akawai]| 
had a dirty greenish pellet . .. held between his lips, which he 
rolled about every now and then. A dark greenish juice oozed from 
it, staining the lips,.and sometimes trickling down from the corners 
of the mouth, the presence of the ball causing their lips to separate 
and protrude (BB, 64). Among the Arekuna the tobacco leaves 
are not dried, but finely chopped up while still fresh, and with a 
black niter-containing earth (which they collect in the savanna), 
kneaded to a dough, out of which the small balls are made” (SR., u, 
239). Schomburgk had not observed tobacco chewing in any other 
tribe. 
285. Ouitoto of the upper Yapura have a peculiar practice of 
tobacco licking, a sort of ceremonial oath taking. Tobacco leaves are 
cooked with water to a sirupy consistency into which the fore and 
middle fingers are dipped and then licked off (KG, 1, 302). 
286. Piptadenia peregrina Benth. (=Mimosa acacioides Benth.) 
yupa, niopo, parica, ete—Gumilla has furnished us with the follow- 
ing particulars from the Orinoco: “The Otomac intoxicate them- 
selves with certain evil powders, which they call yupa, inhaled 
through the nostrils. Their judgment entirely leaves them, and, 
maddened, they take up arms. Were it not for the women being so 
smart in intercepting and preventing them they would be committing 
cruel outrages daily. They make the said powders of certain plants, 
from yupa, which gives them their name. These simply have the 
smell of strong tobacco. It is what is added through the ingenuity 
of the devil that causes the intoxication and madness. After having 
eaten certain large snails, met with on lands subject to inundation, 
the shells are placed on the fire and reduced to lime. This lime is 
mixed with the yupa in equal quantities. So strong is the mixture 
