curare

Anthropological context: A tribe's poison, brewed by its curandero, which is used on the tips of projectiles for hunting game and fighting enemy tribes. A curandero considers his recipes to be trade secrets, and usually performs his craft alone or with an apprentice who has demonstrated to be truly interested in and a keeper of the trade. If an outsider comes inquiring about how to brew such useful stuff, the curandero often makes a big show of incantations or magical procedures, using smoke-and-mirrors to mislead the outsider. Different types of uses call for different brews. A curare for hunting game usually sedates the animal to feel no pain, and then metabolizes to be safe to eat within five minutes of death. A curare for warding off enemy tribes might cause great sickness, or a slow, agonizing death to hostile villains. Curanderos are often mistaken to also brew Ayahuasca, or Yage. These shaman are more appropriately called ayahuasqueros, and their trade is more related to healing and visionary experience than to the rote purposes of curare.