Ayahuasca in Villavicencio's Geografía de la República del Ecuador

Manuel Villavicencio's 1858 geography includes one of the most vivid nineteenth-century Spanish descriptions of ayahuasca in Ecuador. The translation is prepared for the archive from the public-domain New York edition; the Spanish transcript preserves the source's period vocabulary while silently correcting a few obvious OCR errors.

Ayahuasca in Eastern Ecuador

We will not pass over in silence one of the things that, in our view, will attract attention: a vine used by the Záparos, Santa Marías, Mazanes, and Anguteros to divine, foresee, and answer correctly in difficult cases. They use it to give fitting replies to ambassadors from other tribes when war is being discussed; to discover the enemy's plans by means of this magical drink and take appropriate measures for attack and defense; in the case of a relative's illness, to learn which sorcerer has put him in that state; for making a friendly visit to other tribes; when foreign people arrive, such as travelers; and, finally, to make sure of the love of their women.

The operation is as follows: they take a vine called aya huasca, "vine of the dead or of souls," from which they make a light decoction. The Indigenous man who must give the answers or arrange the plans drinks it, and often all the men who form the council drink it. This beverage is narcotic, as one should suppose, and within a few moments it begins to produce the strangest phenomena. Its action seems directed toward exciting the nervous system: all the senses grow sharper and all the faculties awaken. They feel dizziness and spinning in the head, then the sensation of rising into the air and beginning an aerial voyage.

At first the possessed person begins to see the most delightful images, according to his ideas and knowledge. Indigenous people say they see delightful lakes, forests covered with fruit, beautiful birds that communicate what they wish to know that is pleasant and favorable, and other beauties related to their forest life. After this moment they begin to see terrible beasts ready to tear them apart; their flight fails and they descend to earth to fight with the beasts, who tell them all the misfortunes and disasters that await them.

At that moment the Indigenous drinker, who had been as if in a stupor, rises and tries to seize weapons, insulting his closest friends, who restrain him by force inside the hammock until he falls asleep, which does not take long. As for myself, I can say that when I have taken ayahuasca I have felt dizziness and spinning in the head, then an aerial voyage in which I remember perceiving the most delightful perspectives, great cities, high towers, beautiful parks, and other most beautiful objects. Then I imagined myself abandoned in a forest and attacked by beasts, from which I defended myself. Afterward I had a strong sensation of sleep, from which I remember waking with pain and heaviness in the head and sometimes general malaise.

The Indigenous drinker takes ayahuasca many times for pleasure, but strong people must be nearby to hold him firmly in a hammock, because if he were left at liberty and seized any weapon, perhaps none of the bystanders would escape with their lives. Such are the fury and the boasts that he speaks to the malignant specters. After the final sleep has passed, he gathers the memories he had when he saw the visions and, according to his superstitions, arranges the decisions he must take. Ayahuasca is not allowed to the very young or to women. The effects of this beverage are not inferior to those produced by the opium composition used by Orientals in Asia to immerse themselves in agreeable illusions.