Narcotic plants and stimulants of the ancient Americans / by W.E. Safford.

  • William Edwin Safford
Date:
[1917]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Narcotic plants and stimulants of the ancient Americans / by W.E. Safford. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    our southeastern Indians, and the same is true of the taboos imposed upon the women, who were not permitted to touch or taste either the caapi here described or the black drink of our southeastern Indians, which will be described below. In presenting the caapi the cupbearer runs quickly from the oppo¬ site end of the house with a small calabash containing about a tea- cupful in each hand, muttering “ Mo-mo-mo-mo-mo ” as he runs, and gradually sinking down until his chin nearly touches his knees, he presents one of the cups and then the other to the man for whom it is intended. 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 a reckless fury, seizes whatever arms are at hand, his murucff, 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 10 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 remaining fumes, but now he must shake off his drowsiness by renewing the dance.1 Spruce afterwards witnessed the use of this plant by the Indians inhabitating the northeastern Andes of Peru, and saw the plant itself growing in the villages of Canelos and Puca-yacu, inhabited chiefly by the Zaparos. Here it was called by the Quichua name Aya- huasca, which signifies “ Dead man’s vine.” The f ollowing is a sum¬ mary of what he learned concerning it at Puca-yacu: Aya-huasca is used by the Zaparos, Anguteros, Mazanes, and other tribes precisely as I saw caapi used on the Uaup6s, viz, as a narcotic stimulant at their feasts. It is also drunk by the medicine man, when called on to adjudi¬ cate in a dispute or quarrel, to give the proper answer to an embassy, to dis¬ cover the plants 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 air and were floating 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. At this crisis the Indian wakes up from his trance, and if he were not held down in his hammock by force, he would spring to his feet, seize his arms, and attack the first person who stood in his way. Then he becomes drowsy, and finally sleeps. If he be a medicine man who has taken it, when he has slept off the fumes he recalls all he saw in his trance, and thereupon deduces the prophecy, divination, or what not required of him. Boys are not allowed to taste aya-huasca before they reach puberty, nor women at any age, precisely as on the Uaupes.
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