USED BY THE IHDTAH8. 
505 
them and cause them to ferment. When the softened 
seeds begin to grow black, they are kneaded like a paste, 
s ° m< ? fl° ur of cassava and lime procured from 
the shell ol a helix, and the vrhole mass is exposed to a very 
brisk fire, on a gridiron made of hard wood. The hardened 
paste takes the form of small cakes. When it is to be used, 
it is reduced to a fine powder, and placed on a dish five or six 
inches wide. The Ottomac holds this dish, which has a 
handle in his nght hand, while he inhales the niopo by the 
nose, through the forked bone of a bird, the two extremities of 
which arc applied to the nostrils. This bone, without which 
the Ottomac believes that he could not take this kind of 
snuff, is seven inches long : it appeared to me to be the leg- 
bone of a large sort of plover. The niopo is so stimulating, 
that the smallest portions of it produce violent sneezing in 
those who are not accustomed to its nse. Father Gum ilia 
says, lhis diabolical powder of the Ottomacs, furnished by 
an arborescent tobacco-plant, intoxicates them through the 
nostrils (emborachapor las narices), deprives them of reason 
lor some hours, and renders them furious in battle.” How- 
ever 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 mnnosacese, that it is principally the pod of the 
Acacia niopo, which imparts the stimulant power to the snuff 
of the Ottomacs. This power is owing, no doubt, to the 
freshly calcined lime. We have shown above, that the 
mountaineers of the Andes of Popayan, and the Guajiros 
who wander between the lake of Maracaybo and the Eio la 
Hacha, are also fond of swallowing lime as a stimulant, 
to augment the secretion of the saliva and the gastric 
juice. & 
A custom analogous to the use of the niopo just de- 
scribed, was observed by La Condamine among the natives of 
the Upper Maranon. The Omaguas, whose name is ren- 
dered celebrated bv the expeditions attempted in search of 
hi JJorado, have like the Ottomacs, a dish, and the hollow 
bone of a bird, by which they convey to their nostrils their 
powder oi curupa. The seed that yields this powder is 
no doubt also a mimosacea ; for the Ottomacs, according to 
■Orinoco. The cliiga is a species of Inga, and I know of no othei 
lmosacea that can supply the place of the cerealia. 
