A sacred snuff powder made from seeds of a tropical tree, used in religious ceremonies by Indigenous peoples of the Caribbean and South America.
From Taíno (Arawakan language of the Caribbean), the word refers to a hallucinogenic preparation used by the Taíno people. The term entered European records through early colonial contact in the Americas.
When Christopher Columbus arrived in the Caribbean, he witnessed cohoba rituals where shamans inhaled this powerful plant medicine to communicate with spiritual realms—making it one of the first psychoactive substances documented by European explorers.
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