424 NOTES OF A BOTANIST 
in the language of the Incas, Aya-huasca, i.e. Dead 
man's vine. The people were nearly all away at 
the gold-washings, but from the Governor of Puca- 
yacu I got an account of its properties coinciding 
wonderfully with what I had previously learnt in 
Brazil. Dr. Manuel Villavicencio, a native of Quito, 
who had been some years governor of the Christian 
settlements on the Napo, published the following 
year, in his Geografia de la Republica del Ecuador 
(New York, 1858), an interesting account of the 
customs of the natives of that river, and amongst 
others of their drinking the aya-huasca ; but of the 
plant itself he could tell no more than that it was a 
liana or vine. The following is a summary of what 
I learnt at Puca-yacu and from Villavicencio of the 
uses and effects of the aya-huasca or caapi, as 
observed on the Napo and Bombonasa. 
Aya-huasca is used by the Zaparos, Anguteros, 
Mazanes, and other tribes precisely as I saw caapi 
used on the Uaupes, viz. as a narcotic stimulant at 
their feasts. It is also drunk by the medicine-man, 
when called on to adjudicate in a dispute or quarrel 
— to give the proper answer to an embassy — to dis- 
cover the plans of an enemy — to tell if strangers 
are coming — to ascertain if wives are unfaithful — 
in the case of a sick man to tell who has bewitched 
him, etc. 
All who have partaken of it feel first vertigo ; 
then as if they rose up into the air and were float- 
ing about. The Indians say they see beautiful 
lakes, woods laden with fruit, birds of brilliant 
plumage, etc. Soon the scene changes ; they see 
savage beasts preparing to seize them, they can no 
longer hold themselves up, but fall to the ground. 
