244 ARTS AND CRAFTS OF GUIANA INDIANS [ETH. ANN. 38 
that even if the finger which has only touched it is placed near the 
nose a fit of sneezing results. The Otomac use it before going into 
battle with the Carib. The Saliva as well as other Indians employ 
yupa, but as they are meek, good-tempered, and faint-hearted nations 
they do not become so infuriated as our Otomac” (G, 1, 181). 
About a century later Humboldt, traveling among the Otomac, 
speaks of the preparation of the drug as follows: “They gather the 
long pods . . . cut them into pieces, moisten them, and cause them to 
ferment. When the softened seeds begin to grow black they are 
kneaded like a paste, mixed with some cassava flour and lime pro- 
cured from the shell of a helix, and the whole mass is exposed to a 
very brisk fire, on a gridiron made of hardwood. The hardened paste 
takes the form of small cakes. When it is to be used it is reduced to a 
fine powder and placed on a dish 5 or 6 inches wide. The Otomac 
holds this dish, which has a handle, in his right hand, while he in- 
hales the niopo by the nose, through the forked bone of a bird, the 
two extremities of which are applied to the nostrils. This bone, 
without which the Otomac believes that he could not take this kind 
of snuff, is 7 inches long. It appeared to me to be the leg bone of a 
large sort of plover. The niopo is so stimulating that the smallest 
portions of it produce violent sneezing in those who are not ac- 
customed to its use” (AVH, 11, 505). Along the main shore of the 
Parima River, below Fort San Joachim, Schomburgk found numerous 
trees of this mimosa, the seeds of which are used by several tribes of 
Indians along the Rios Amazon and Negro, as the Uaupes, Puros, ete. 
They are pounded to powder and the smoke inhaled, or the powder is 
put into the eyes, nose, and ears, which produces a state of intoxication 
or madness which lasts for hours, and during which time the In- 
dians have no command of themselves or their passions. A general 
stupor succeeds, which sometimes lasts for days (ScK, 182; SR, 1, 
103). Bates gives the following description of the manufacture and 
use of the drug among the Mura of the lower Amazon: “The seeds 
are dried in the sun, pounded in wooden mortars, and kept in bamboo 
tubes. When they are ripe, and the snuff-making season sets in, they 
have a fuddling bout lasting many days, which the Brazilians call a 
quarentena, and which forms a kind of festival of a semireligious 
character. They begin by drinking large quantities of caysima and 
cashiri, fermented drinks made of various fruits and mandioca, but 
they prefer cashaca or rum when they can get it. In a short time 
they drink themselves into a soddened, semi-intoxicated state, and 
then commence taking the paricé. For this purpose they pair off, 
and each of the partners taking a reed containing a quantity of the 
snuff, after going through a deal of unintelligible mummery, blows 
the contents with all his force into the nostrils of his companion. 
The effect . . . is wonderful. They become exceedingly talkative, 
