cH.xxv NARCOTICS AND STIMULANTS 419 
is such a family likeness in all the Indian festivities 
of Tropical America that, allowing for slight local 
variations, the description of one might serve for 
all. There is no more graphic account of a native 
feast than that by old Wafer, of one he saw on the 
Isthmus of Darien (JVew Voyage and Description of 
the Isthmus of America, p. 363). 
In the course of the night, the young men par- 
took of caapi five or six times, in the intervals 
between the dances ; but only a few of them at a 
time, and very few drank of it twice. The cup- 
bearer — who must be a man, for no woman can 
touch or taste caapi — starts at a short run from the 
opposite end of the house, with a small calabash 
containing about a teacupful of caapi in each hand, 
muttering " Mo-mo-mo-mo-mo " as he runs, and 
gradually sinking down until at last his chin nearly 
touches his knees, when he reaches out one of his 
cups to the man who stands ready to receive it, 
and when that is drunk off, then the other cup. 
In two minutes or less after drinking it, its effects 
begin to be apparent. The Indian turns deadly 
pale, trembles in every limb, and horror is in his 
aspect. Suddenly contrary symptoms succeed : he 
bursts into a perspiration, and seems possessed with 
reckless fury, seizes whatever arms are at hand, 
his murucii, bow and arrows, or cutlass, and rushes 
to the doorway, where he inflicts violent blows on 
the ground or the doorposts, calling out all the 
while, Thus would I do to mine enemy (naming 
him by his name) were this he!" In about ten 
minutes the excitement has passed off, and the 
Indian grows calm, but appears exhausted. Were 
he at home in his hut, he would sleep off the 
