ACCOUNTS OF MODERN TRAVELLERS.
All the mountain Indians,[10] Von Tschudi states, are addicted more
or less to the practice of masticating Coca. Each man consumes, on
an average, between an ounce and an ounce and a half per day, and
on festival days about double that quantity. The owners of mines and
plantations allow their labourers to suspend their work three times a
day for the _chacchar_ or masticating operation, which usually occupies
upwards of a quarter of an hour; and after that they smoke a paper
cigar, which they allege crowns the zest of the Coca mastication. The
Coca leaves, he says, are taken deliberately one by one, stillness and
repose being indispensable to their full enjoyment. No urging of the
traveller will interrupt the Indian in this meal,—the servant would
leave his master if prohibited the use of Coca—he would rather miss
food. In a state of silent abstraction the leaves are first masticated
into a small ball or _acullico_, a thin slip of damp wood is then
thrust into the _ishcupuru_ or gourd, containing lime, and when drawn
out, some portion of the powder it contains adheres. The _acullico_,
or ball of masticated Coca leaves is, whilst still lying in the mouth,
punctured with this slip of wood, until the lime mixing with it
(setting free its alkaloid), gives it a proper relish, and the abundant
flow of saliva thus excited is partly expectorated (? see Weddell, p.
19) and partly swallowed. When the ball ceases to emit juice, it is
thrown away, and a new one is formed by the mastication of a fresh
mouthful of Coca leaves. In Cerro de Pasco, and in places still farther
south, the Indians use instead of unslaked lime a preparation of the
pungent ashes of the Quinoa (_Chenopodium Quinoa_, L). This preparation
is called _Llucta_ or _Llipta_. In using it a piece is broken off and
masticated along with the _acullico_. In some regions the _Llipta_ is
made from the musa root.
[Footnote 10: Travels in Peru, by J. J. Von Tschudi. London: 1847, p.
450.]
The Indians maintain that Coca is the best preventive of that
difficulty of respiration felt in the rapid ascents of the Cordilleras
and the Puna. “Of this fact,” says Von Tschudi,[11] “I was fully
convinced by my own experience. I speak here, not of the mastication of
the leaves, but of their decoction taken as a beverage.”
[Footnote 11: Op. cit. p. 454.]
“When I was in the Puna, at the height of fourteen thousand feet
above the level of the sea, I drank always before going out to hunt,
a strong infusion of Coca leaves. I could then, during the whole day,
climb the heights and follow the swift-footed wild animals, without
experiencing any greater difficulty of breathing than I should have
felt in similar rapid movements on the coast. Moreover, I did not
suffer from the symptoms of cerebral excitement or uneasiness which
other travellers have experienced. The reason, perhaps, is, that I
only drank the decoction on the cold Puna, where the nervous system
is far less susceptible than in the climate of the forests beneath.
However, I always felt a sense of great satiety after taking the Coca
infusion, and I did not feel a desire for my next meal until after the
time at which I usually took it.”
He also says:—
“A cholo of Huarai, named Hatan Huamang, was employed by me in very
laborious digging. During the five days and nights he was in my
service he never tasted any food, and took only two hours’ sleep each
night. But at intervals of two and a half or three hours he regularly
chewed about half an ounce of Coca leaves, and he kept an _acullico_
continually in his mouth. I was constantly beside him, and therefore
I had the opportunity of closely observing him. The work for which I
engaged him being finished, he accompanied me on a two days’ journey
of twenty-three leagues across the level heights. Though on foot, he
kept up with the pace of my mule, and halted only for the _chacchar_.
On leaving me, he declared he would willingly engage himself again for
the same amount of work, and that he would go through it without food,
if I would but allow him a sufficient supply of coca. The village
priest assured me that this man was sixty-two years of age, and that
he had never known him to be ill in his life.”
In this account we cannot but conclude that the traveller’s credulity
was imposed on. He further adds:—
“Setting aside all extravagant and visionary notions on the subject,
I am clearly of opinion that the moderate use of Coca is not merely
innoxious, but that it may even be very conducive to health.”
He instances cases “by no means singular,” of longevity among the
Indians of individuals who had attained the great age of 130 years,
under its use.
Pöppig[12] says the average yield of a Cocal or Coca plantation is
about 800 lbs. of dry leaves per English acre. When nearly dry, he
says, they emit an odour similar to mellilot, or the new-mown hay odour
of _Anthoxanthum odoratum_ (probably due to coumarin), which causes
headache to strangers. If not perfectly dry when packed they heat and
ferment, and become inert and useless, especially to the manufacturer
of Cocaine.
[Footnote 12: Companion to _Bot. Mag._, 1835, i. 161, translated from
“Reise im Chile, Peru und auf dem Amazon Ström, 1827 to 1832.”]
Both Pöppig and Von Tschudi give a doleful account of the intemperate
use of Coca by the inveterate _coquero_, as he is called,—his bad
breath, pale lips and gums, greenish and stumpy teeth, and an ugly
black mark at the angles of his mouth, his unsteady gait, yellow skin,
dim and sunken eyes encircled by a purple ring, his quivering lips, and
his general apathy—all bear evidence of the baneful effects of the Coca
when taken in excess. He prefers solitude, and, when a slave to his
cravings, he will often take himself for days together to the silence
of the woods to indulge unrestrained the use of the leaf. The habit
must be very seducing, as, though long stigmatised and very generally
considered as a degrading, purely Indian vice, many white Peruvians
at Lima and elsewhere retire daily at stated times to chew Coca. Even
Europeans, Von Tschudi says, have fallen into the habit. Both he and
Pöppig mention instances of white _coqueros_ of good Peruvian families
who were addicted to the vice. One is described by Pöppig who became
averse to any exertion; city life and its restraints were hateful
to him; he lived in a miserable hut; once a month, at least, when
irresistibly seized with the passion he would disappear into the forest
and be lost for many days, after which he would emerge sick, powerless,
and altered.
“He was of use to me,” he says, “as a good and eager sportsman, and
by liberally supplying him with such fine gunpowder as he could
not obtain by purchase, I soon gained his perfect confidence and
goodwill. His disposition was generally kind, but any remonstrance
against his vice would throw him into an ungovernable rage. He has
frequently assured me in confidential moments that he would rather,
as he has done for months together, live alone in the midst of some
Coca shrubs in the most solitary spot in the wilderness, depending for
support on his fishing-line and gun than return home to his family
at Huanuco. His description of the lovely visions that appeared to
him in the forest at night, and of his delicious sensation at such
moments, had in it something truly awful. When it rained he used to
cover his half-naked body with the soddened leaves that had fallen
from the trees, and he assured me that when this wretched substitute
for raiment was brought to steam by the warmth of his person, that he
could lie thus enveloped for hours without experiencing inconvenience
or cold.”
Such isolated cases, in some respects at least parallel, in inveterate
drunkards, are occasionally met with in this country. _Coqueros_ become
afflicted with a peculiar disease. Pöppig says:—
“The natives of the cold and dry districts of the Andes are more
addicted to the consumption of Coca than those of the close forests,
where, undoubtedly, other stimulants do but take its place. Weakness
in the digestive organs, ... increasing continually in a greater or
less degree, first attacks the unfortunate _coquero_. This complaint,
which is called _opilacion_, may be trifling in the beginning, but
soon attains an alarming height. Then come bilious obstructions,
attended with all those thousand painful symptoms which are so
much aggravated by tropical climate. Jaundice and derangement of
the nervous system follow, along with pains in the head, and such
prostration of strength that the patient speedily loses all appetite;
the hue of the whites assumes a leaden colour, and a total inability
to sleep ensues, which aggravates the mental depression of the unhappy
individual, who, in spite of all his ills, cannot relinquish the use
of the herb to which he owes his sufferings, but craves brandy in
addition. The appetite becomes quite irregular, sometimes failing
altogether, and sometimes assuming a wolfish voracity, especially for
animal food. Thus do years of misery drag on, succeeded at length by a
painful death.”
Later, Dr. Weddell, however, who travelled where Coca was most in use,
saw no results from its use at all bearing comparison with these just
narrated. He gives the following interesting detailed account of the
growth, cultivation, and use of Coca from personal observation.