TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 



2S1 



ripe. The gathering of the roots is performed by 

 Indians, and by the negro slaves of the neighbour- 

 ing landowners during the whole year, but prin- 

 cipally immediately after the rainy season, for then 

 the ground being soft, it is more easy to pull up 

 the roots. The Indians do not pay any kind of 

 attention to the propagation of the plant, but pluck 

 up, without distinction, all the roots they can find ; 

 so that after a time this valuable medicine may 

 become scarce, unless they take care to raise the 

 plant from seed. The roots, being plucked up, are 

 tied in bundles, dried in the sun, and disposed of to 

 the neighbouring landholders or to dealers in roots, 

 who come from Rio de Janeiro, and from the 

 campos of Goytacazes. The price in the forest is 

 very trifling, about two hundred rees per pound ; 

 the Indians, however, do not take money, but only 

 goods in exchange, such as brandy, iron-ware, 

 cotton handkerchiefs, &c. We were assured that 

 the savages had learnt the use of the ipecacuanha 

 from the irara, a kind of martin, which is accus- 

 tomed, they say, when it has drank too much of 

 the impure or brackish water of several streams 

 and pools, to chew the leaves and the root, and 

 thereby excite vomiting. But this is, perhaps, one 

 of the many unfounded traditions which the Portu- 

 guese have adopted, without examination, from 

 the Indians. Here, and in general in Brazil, the 

 ipecacuanha is taken in a cold infusion which has 

 stood twelve hours, and the dose is usually larger 



