Matses and Spiritual Beliefs

Someone researching a documentary on sapo--the misnamed frog-sweat utilized as a medicine by the indigenous Matses/Mayoruna of Peru and the Bralian border, asked me what spiritual value the medicine had among the Matses, and what spiritual value it would have when utilized by a non-Matses.
The frog sweat--misnamed because the Matses call it "sapo" which means toad in Spanish, and the actual material comes from a tree frog, the Phylomedusa bicolor. The mistake occurred because in the not too distant past few Matses spoke much Spanish.
The medicine itself is the protective slime given off by the frog in the instant when a snake takes it into it's mouth: the slime, or sweat, is so instantly painful or uncomfortable to the snake that the reptile opens its mouth and the amphibian climbs out, unharmed. That's what's supposed to happen, anyway.
For human use, the frog is captured--or actually the branch on which the frog is found is cut and the branch, with frog, is placed on the ground. Four twigs are placed in the ground; thin vine sections, like thread, are attached to the four little posts, and when that's done the frog is very gently tied to them so that he looks finally like a green trampoline, all stretched out between those four twigs, body suspended by the vine on its four legs.
The frog is then bothered a bit until it gets rankled and begins to produce its protective "sweat". That sweat is collected by scraping the skin with a flat stick. The collected sweat is then transferred to a piece of split bamboo about the size of a tongue depressor. When the frog has given up all of its sweat, the animal is untied and realeased unharmed. Shaken up by the experience, no doubt, but unharmed.
The collected material is then dried to prevent molding in the humid rainforest.
When used for medicine, the Matses spit on a small portion of the material--which looks like dried varnish--and scrape a bit of it into the spit until it's liquified. Not really liquified but the texture of wasabi, or some other type of mustard.
The recipient is then burned with a piece of red-hot tamishi--a particular type of vine that's also utilized to tie house beams together--two, three or four times, generally in the upper arm or chest. The burnt epidermis is scraped off, exposing a subcutaneous layer of skin and the frog sweat is dabbed on those areas.
In 15 seconds the body heats up, the heart begins to race, there's some puking and shitting generally involved, a bit of fear of death by your heart or head exploding from the speed at which your blood is racing; there's a lot of sweating and mucous elimination...very unpleasant experience. HA!!! Much worse than unpleasant!
BUTTTTTT....when you are through the most acute minutes, about 15 or them, and your body begins to normalize, you find yourself cleansed of toxins, and discover that all of your senses are functioning at a higher level than normal.
In short--if this can be said to be that--it's a great medicine for tuning up the body in a very intense but short time.
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Anyway, this was my answer to the fellow's questions and since I wrote it I thought I'd share it.

I've never heard of any spiritual beliefs of the Matses. In the series Handbook of South American Indians, in the book related to the Forest People or Lowland Indians--rare book room, NYC Public Library, series published around 1946, and based on the earliest contact with tribals in the lowland forests--early explorers describe them as not only having no spiritual beliefs, but no song, no dance, no ritual at all.
My experience, running into them in 1985 was slightly different. At that point, the Matses would not eat jungle deer because the spirits of their ancestors became deer when they physically died.
But that was about it.
On the other hand, their ability to make it stop raining on their camps was extraordinary: It could be raining all around the camp but they'd tell the rain not to bother the camp and they would stay dry--most of the time, anyway. Funny to see.
Whether that sounds believeable or not isn't important; what it represents is important. The antiguas, the old-style Matses, still believed in talking with the spirits of clouds, trees, animals and so forth. Moreover, they appeared capable of doing it. I'm not gonna swear to that but do know that each village depended on the chief or headman--though there was no designation for that as such--for the answers that "contact" with those spirits brought. Maybe they were just so excellent at reading natural signs that it appeared they were in contact with spirits.
But that was not considered a spiritual belief; that was just something the antiguas could do--no more or less important than hunting or gathering.
That said, there was a certain spirituality about them: They never hurt the frog when taking the frog sweat, if kids were around they always waved it goodbye after it was freed to leave. If a close relative died, his/her parents/spouse would cut their hair short and be in mourning until it grew back full length. And if a baby died at birth--or was subjected to infanticide because it was born with a physical problem--the parents would make a clay container, put the baby's corpse in it, then seal it up and put it over a fire for three days. When the corpse was reduced to ash, they would make a hole in the container and consume the ashes so that the baby--presumably the baby's spirit--could grow again and come out healthy next time.
So a level of spirituality existed, but I don't think they would have defined it that way. Again, it was just part and parcel of living.
Much of that has changed, of course, as they become more heavily missionized.
So back to your questions: I don't know what spiritual elements a non-Matses would derive from using sapo. And I don't think that concept came up within the Matses culture at all.