504
INTOXICATING POWDERS
with the poya. Perhaps Father Gumilla has c o n f o u n d e d the preparation o f the earth, which the natives swallow, with the custom they still retain ( o f which M. Bonpland acquired the certainty on the s p o t ) o f burying in the g r o u n d t h e beans o f a species o f mimosacea,* t o cause them t o enter into decomposition, so as to reduce them into a white bread, savoury, but difficult o f digestion. I repeat that the balls o f poya, which we took from the winter stores o f the Indians, contained no trace of animal fat, or o f amylaceous matter. Gumilla being one of the most credulous travellers we k n o w , it almost perplexes us to credit facts, which even he has thought lit to reject. Ill the second volume o f his w o r k , he however gainsays a great part o f what h o advanced in the first; he no longer d o u b t s , that " half at least (a lo menus) o f the bread o f the O t t o m a c s and t h e Guamos is c l a y . " He asserts, " t h a t children and full g r o w n persons not only eat this bread without suffering in their health, but also great pieces o f pure clay (muchos terrones de pura greda.)" He adds, that those who feel a weight on the stomach physic themselves with the fat o f the crocodile, which restores t heir appetite, and enables them t o c o n t i n u e to eat pure earth. † It is certain, that the (Guamos are very fond, if not o f the fat, at least of the flesh o f the crocodile, which appeared to us white, and without any smell of musk. In Sennaar, according to Burckhardt, it is equally esteemed, and sold in the markets. The little village o f Uruana is more difficult to govern than most of the other missions. T h e O t t o m a c s are a restless, turbulent people, with unbridled passions. They are not only fond to excess o f he fermented liquors prepared from cassava and maize, and o f palm-wine, but they throw t h e m selves into ¡1 peculiar state o f intoxication, we might say o f madness, by the use o f the powder of niopo. They gather the long pods o f a mimosacea, which we have made known b y the name o f Acacia niopo, ‡ cut them into pieces, moisten • ()t till' L'lTllls IllL'll. t tilllllilbl, Vol. ii, J). 260. ‡ It is an acacia with very delicate leaves, and not an Inga We brought home another species mimosacea (the chiga of the Ottomacs, andthesepaof the Maypures), that yields seeds, the flour of which is eaten at Uruana like cassava. from this flour the chiga bread is prepared, which is so common at Cunariche, and on the banks of the Lower