Word: amahuaca
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...rdova-Rios quickly learned to move soundlessly through the underbrush, alert to the forest's early-warning system: the cries of startled birds, the fetid scent of the deadly fer-de-lance, the click-click of an enraged wild boar. Xumu, the old chief of the Amahuaca, also instructed him in jungle medicine. The stem of the paka nixpo plant, when chewed, prevented tooth decay for years; the extract of the ayahuasca vine was especially prized for producing visions that, Córdova-Rios says, actually enhance human intelligence. After many adventures-hunting, harvesting rubber, procuring arms...
...youth at the turn of the century, Manuel Córdova-Rios left Iquitos, Peru, to accompany a gang of rubber harvesters on a brief trip into the Upper Amazon. He returned home seven years later. In between, he lived in the jungle with the primitive Amahuaca Indians, first as a captive, finally as chief. Nine years ago, F. Bruce Lamb, a U.S. researcher in tropical flora, first met Córdova-Rios, then transcribed and translated the old man's astonishingly detailed, fascinating recollections...