ON MATICO. 
Ill 
view of others. The man who manages the bowl, fills the 
cup by dipping in a portion of fow rolled together, and 
which, when replete with the liquid, he holds over the cup, 
compressing it so that the infusion falls into it, to the quan- 
tity of about the third of a pint. The one who has the cup 
now turns and stands a little on one side, with his face to- 
wards the chief, at the same time one of those who have 
been described sitting by the side of the bowl and employed 
fanning it, cries out with a loud voice, 'The cava is de- 
posited* (t\ e. in the cup;) the mataboole replies, 4 Give it 
to naming the party who is to have it, who hearing 
his name announced, claps the hollow part of his hands to- 
gether, to signify whereabout he is seated; the cupbearer 
the nadvances, and presents it standing, unless it be a chief 
when he presents it sitting." 
Now, it clearly follows from this process, that vinous fer- 
mentation cannot take place, as the beverage is drunk im- 
mediately it is prepared ; its effects, therefore, must be at- 
tributed to some narcotic property existing in the root, and 
which has never, I believe, been separated or investigated ; 
it is, however, worthy of remark, that the peppers were 
formerly united in one great family with the hemps, and 
that the latter are narcotic. 
The root and stem of this plant abound in ligneous fibre, 
which, with starch, (also existing in immense quantity,) con- 
stitutes its great bulk. From a pithy centre, consisting of 
lax cells filled with starch globules, proceed plates of woody 
and vascular tissue, alternating with small cells fiilled with 
starch. For some magnified drawings of this root I am in- 
debted to my friend Mr. Alfred White, the drawing of the 
plant itself is copied from an unpublished one in the col- 
lection of the late Sir Joseph Banks, in the British Museum. 
If this root be distilled it yields a most agreeable essential 
oil, easily recognizable, and differing from that of other pep- 
pers. Treated with boiling alcohol, it yields an extract 
pungent to the taste, leaving a remarkable impression on 
