CHAPTER XXV 
INDIGENOUS NARCOTICS AND STIMULANTS USED BY 
THE INDIANS OF THE AMAZON 
[This chapter consists of a carefully written account 
of the above subject, compiled by Spruce about 1870 
from his notes and observations, and printed in the 
short-lived Geographical Magazine. Fortunately, he 
presented the beautifully written manuscript to his 
Yorkshire friend and fellow-botanist, Mr. G. Stabler, 
of Milnthorpe, Westmoreland, who has kindly lent 
it me for reproduction here, and I feel sure that 
it will be both new and interesting to the great 
majority of readers of this volume. Besides its 
main subject, it touches upon the beliefs and customs 
of the Indians who use these narcotics, and on the 
proceedings of their "pajes" or medicine-men; and 
incidentally it narrates the occurrence of rare and 
mysterious sounds in the forest, and their very 
curious explanation, which I believe he was the first, 
and probably still the only, traveller to obtain. The 
whole essay affords a good example of the writer's 
style and of his power of making even technical 
details interesting, and of introducing bright de- 
scriptive flashes and touches of human nature in 
what might otherwise be a rather dry exposition of 
botanical and pharmaceutical facts. Two paragraphs 
413 
