The anguaỹ, a tree of uncommon height, and thickness, affords wood fit
for carpenters work, hard, red, and remarkably fragrant. By way of
fruit, it bears hard seeds, like almonds, which are also used in
medicine. The stones of this fruit are triangular-shaped, of a violet
colour, and so bright that the Indian women make necklaces of them. The
rosin which distils from the anguaỹ is exceedingly fragrant, and of
sovereign virtue. The famous Peruvian and Brazilian balsam is made of
this rosin mixed with the oil of the cupaỹ tree, and others; it is also
used in churches instead of frankincense, which it greatly exceeds in
sweetness. The bark of the tree, being impregnated with rosin, is used
for the same purpose. The tree is named _anguaỹ_, because mortars are
generally made of it by the Guaranies, in whose language it is also
called _ybir̂apayè_, the conjuror's tree; for the savage jugglers,
whenever they expected to be visited, and consulted by their countrymen,
used to perfume their huts, by burning this rosin, that they might seem
to breathe of something divine.