663 



which the Otomac believes that he could not take 

 this kind of snuff, is seven inches long : it ap- 

 peared to me to be the leg bone of a large sort of 

 plover (echassier). I sent the niopo, and all this 

 singular apparatus, to Mr. de Fourcroy at Paris. 

 The niopo is so stimulating, that the smallest 

 portions of it produce a violent sneezing in those, 

 who are not accustomed to it's use. Father 

 Gumilla says*, " This diabolical powder of 

 the Otomacs, furnished by an arborescent to- 

 bacco-plant, intoxicates them by the nostrils 

 ( emboracha por las narices ), deprives them of 

 reason for some hours, and renders them furious 

 in battle." However varied may be the family 

 of the leguminous plants in the chemical and 

 medical properties of their seeds, juices, and 

 roots, we cannot believe, from what we know 

 hitherto of the group of mimosacese, that it is 

 principally the pod of the acacia niopo, that im- 

 parts the stimulant power to the snuff of the 

 Otomacs. This power is owing, no doubt, to 

 the lime freshly calcined. We have shown above, 

 that the mountaineers of the Andes of Popayan, 

 and the Guajiroes who wander between the lake 

 of Maracaybo and the Rio la Hacha, are also 

 fond of swallowing lime as a stimulant, to aug- 

 ment the secretion of the spittle and the gastric 

 juice. 



* Orinoco Must., vol. i, p. 202. 



