HISTORY OF COCA.
Coca has been known from time immemorial in South America. At the time
when Pizarro landed on the Peruvian coast, the leaf of Coca was held
in great esteem among the natives; it was considered to be a divine
plant, a living representation of the Deity, a fetish of wonderful and
supernatural qualities, and the fields where it grew were reverenced as
sanctuaries. Not everybody was allowed to make use of it; its use was
the privilege of the nobles and of the priests, and among the greatest
rewards that the sovereign could give his subjects, the privilege of
chewing Coca leaves was most highly esteemed.
However strange such a superstition may appear, it is indisputable,
and all authors that have published the account of the conquest of the
Indies corroborate it. It will suffice for us to quote the testimony
of Joseph Acosta, who says in every letter, of his natural and moral
history of the Indies, of the East as well as of the West, published in
1653:
"The Indians esteem it highly, and during the reign of the Incas, the
common people were not allowed to use Coca without the permission of
the Governor."
[Illustration: NATIVES OF COLOMBIA CHEWING COCA.]
The disappearance of the empire of the Incas, far from diminishing
the importance of Coca, on the contrary gave a very much greater
scope to its popularity. The natives profited by their freedom
from the restrictions imposed by the native rulers in regard to the
consumption of Coca, and soon the use of this leaf became so common
that it has been compared by every one interested in the question to
the use of tobacco by us; and, as it has justly been added, without
its objections. There is no more likelihood of seeing a smoker embark
without his tobacco than an Indian begin work or undertake a journey
unless his _chuspa_ (pouch) is full of Coca leaves. Three or four times
a day he sits down, takes some leaves, puts them one by one into his
mouth and rolls them into an _aculio_ (quid), adding a little _llipta_
(lime), which he takes from his ever-present _poporo_. The _poporo_
is a little gourd, bored at the mouth on the upper part, in which the
Indian keeps his _llipta_. This _llipta_ is a white powder composed of
ashes of vegetables and of calcined shells pulverized, with which the
consumers of Coca have been accustomed, from the most remote times, to
season their quid. It is, really, an alkaline substance intended to
isolate the different principles of the leaf and to make the action of
the Coca more prompt.
Among those inhabitants of South America, with whom the use of Coca did
not extend to the lower classes until after the reign of the Incas,
and who reserved for themselves, as we have seen, the right of chewing
the Coca leaves, the consumption of Coca by children is strictly
prohibited. They do not indulge in this luxury except in secret, and
it appears to them all the sweeter because it is forbidden. But nearly
always their breath, charged with the tell-tale odor of Coca, betrays
them on approaching their parents, and the latter make them pay for the
pleasure which they have stolen, and to which they are not entitled
until they are of age, with very severe punishment. Only when they have
grown up will they be allowed to chew Coca and to carry the _poporo_,
which they do not relinquish even in the grave.
On coming of age the young Indian is consigned to an old woman, who
keeps him a few hours in her hut to initiate him in the mysteries of
man's estate.
After this ceremony she gives him the _chuspa_ (Coca pouch), invests
him with the _poporo_ and consecrates him a _coquero_. One should see
with what pride the young Indian leaves the threshold of the sacred
cabin, which he entered as a child scarcely a few hours before and from
which he departs a man, that is to say, carrying the _chuspa_ and the
_poporo_, and able to chew with impunity, before the old people, this
precious leaf which had been forbidden him until then.
No happiness is comparable to his! See with what an important air he
draws forth the Coca leaves from his _chuspa_, as he rolls them in his
fingers to make a large quid of them, which he carries to his mouth,
moistens delightingly with saliva, and places under his jaws and
against his cheeks. He is seen holding carefully in his right hand the
little stick, the extremity of which he is going to moisten by putting
it into his mouth, and which he will dip into the _poporo_ in order
that the _llipta_ may adhere to its moistened part.
He carefully carries the part of his little stick covered with _llipta_
to his quid, and thus performs the operation of mixing the alkaline
powder with the masticated leaf. It is at this moment that the quid of
Coca affords the young adult the most delightful sensation. His jaws
munch it slowly, his tongue collects and rolls it up against the left
cheek, all the _papillæ_ of his mouth refresh themselves deliciously
with the soothing and aromatic juices of the precious leaf, and by the
slow and measured motions of deglutition, he carries with delight the
precious juice into the pharynx and thence to the stomach. While he is
accomplishing this important operation, his eyes swim with beatitude,
over his entire countenance is diffused an expression of content and
unutterable joy, and his right hand slowly turns the little stick
around the upper part of the _poporo_, where are deposited little by
little the particles of _llipta_ and masticated Coca, which on leaving
his mouth adhere to its extremity.
The only occupation of the first days of the adult is the much-loved
quid of Coca and the encrusting of his gourd, which we cannot do better
than compare to the coating of the pipe, with this difference that
our confirmed smokers blacken hundreds of their pipes during their
existence, while the Indian encrusts only one gourd in his whole life;
so that by the thickness of the crust formed around a _poporo_, it is
possible to judge the age of its owner. This crust, which hardly ever
exceeds the thickness of a ring on the _poporo_ of a young Indian, ends
by reaching the dimension of the pileus of a large mushroom on the
_poporo_ of an old man.
The crust is produced by the particles of Coca and _llipta_ mixed with
saliva which are deposited little by little about the mouth of the
_poporo_ by smearing with the stick.
These deposits are brought about in an almost imperceptible manner. It
is only after some months that the surface of the _poporo_, on which
the chewer continually turns the little stick, becomes covered with a
hardly perceptible layer of calcareous substance; at the end of two or
three years the superimposed layers form a ring which grows larger from
year to year, and which finally attains the thickness we have spoken of
above.
[Illustration: Small stick for extracting the Llipta from the poporo.]
[Illustration: 1. Poporo of a youth.]
[Illustration: 2. Poporo of a man in his prime.]
[Illustration: 3. Poporo of an old man.]
As we have said before, the Indian never parts with his _poporo_, let
him be awake or asleep, at home or on his travels, the _poporo_ is
always attached to his belt. An Indian would part with all he holds
most dear in the world, all, except his _poporo_.
We have the rare and good fortune to possess a _poporo_, of which we
give a picture (fig. 3). It is, we believe, the only specimen existing
in Europe. We owe it to the kindness of M. Gauguet, who has made
numerous voyages to Colombia, where he has been able to establish so
much sympathy among the natives that one of their old chiefs, who was
specially indebted, did not fear to depart from all custom and to
incur the contempt of his companions, by offering him, as a pledge of
friendship, the object to which he attached the greatest value—his
_poporo_![3]
Thus the great importance that an Indian attaches to Coca is easily
shown. It should be recognized, moreover, that the first conquerors of
the country did not fail to countenance the passion of the vanquished
for the national plant. In fact, they quickly recognized that the habit
of consuming Coca might become an excellent source of revenue; and
Garcillasco de la Véga, a half-breed of the first generation, tells us
that in his time a part of the impost was paid to the conqueror in the
form of Coca leaves. The benefits which were derived from the traffic
in this plant were such that at a certain time the revenues of the
bishop and of the canons of the cathedral of Cuzco came from the tithe
on these leaves.
There was, moreover, another object in favoring the use of Coca among
the Indians. The latter were treated, as is known, as if they were
beasts of burden, and their oppressors were not slow to recognize the
fact that they furnished much better labor when they consumed Coca.
We shall see, further on, that the recognition of this fact, the
correctness of which cannot be disputed, and which served to excite
the rapacity of the conquering savages of that time, has become to-day
the means of furnishing one of the most valuable aids to contemporary
therapeutics.
The particular favor in which the plant was held in the beginning
of the conquest, was destined to suffer some disturbance. In the
seventeenth century, for example, the religious quibbles regaining the
ascendancy in public affairs, some sedate theologians pretended that
Coca was an aliment, and that under this name the use of it should be
prohibited to young people and before the communion. The question was
vigorously contested, and there is no doubt that the consumption of
Coca would have sustained a very decided blow had not Prince don Alonzo
de la Pina Montenegro declared that the plant contained no alimentary
principle. This point we shall presently consider from a scientific
point of view.
Although the inhabitants of the Indies attach so much importance to the
use of Coca, this product can not be acclimatized in our hemisphere,
and our fathers who took up the use of tobacco with so much eagerness
remained indifferent to Coca. Perhaps this indifference should be
attributed to the exaggerations of the first importers, who coming to
Europe still imbued with the legends gathered in the New World ascribed
supernatural qualities to the new plant. The exaggeration of these
statements soon became apparent. From this it was only a step to a
denial even of its existence. And thus, for more than two centuries, we
were deprived of the advantages to be derived from the judicious use of
the plant.
It should not be believed, however, that the various writers during
these two centuries remained entirely silent regarding Coca. The study
of the properties of the plant was still a field of research for a
number of learned men, small, it is true, but they well knew that side
by side with fiction, which they rejected, there was a reality that it
were better to accept.
We further observe, that Claude Duret, a magistrate of Moulins, who
wrote a book, printed in 1605, on _The Marvellous and Wonderful Plants
in Nature_, mentions Coca as one of the most worthy to figure in his
colleccion.
Nicholas Monardes in the _General History of Plants_, published in
Lyons in 1653, calls attention likewise to the properties of Coca.
In the seventeenth century, l'abbé Longuerue, who was a theologian, an
historian, and a philologist, speaking of the Spanish colonies in South
America, says, in regard to the mines explored in Peru: "The negroes
can not work in the mines, they all die. Hardly any but the natives
are able to endure this labor, and then it is necessary to relieve
them frequently and that they should chew Coca, without which the
quicksilver vapors would kill them."
Linnæus says that Coca possesses: "the penetrating aroma of vegetable
stimulants, the astricting and fortifying virtues of an astringent,
the antispasmodic qualities of bitters, and the mucilaginous nutritive
properties of analeptics or of alimentary plants. This leaf," he
continues, "exhibits with energy its action on all parts of the animal
economy: _Olido in nervos, sapido in fibras utroque in fluido_."
Father don Antonio Julian wrote: "This plant is a preventive against
many diseases, a restorative of lost strength, and is capable of
prolonging human life. It is sincerely to be regretted that so many
poor families do not possess this preventive of hunger and thirst;
that so many employees and laborers should be deprived of this means
of maintaining their strength in the midst of continuous toil; that
so many old and young men engaged in the arduous task of study and
the accomplishment of their undertakings are unable to derive the
beneficial results of this plant to guard against the exhaustion of
the vital spirits, debility of the brain, and weakness of the stomach,
which are frequent results of continuous study."
Böerhaave (_Inst. phys._ § 68), states that: "the saliva charged with
all the bitter and mucilaginous principles of Coca carries to the
stomach, in addition to vital strength, a veritable nutritive which,
digested and converted into an abundant and nutritious chyle, enters
into the circulation and is converted into the material necessary to
sustain the human economy."
We shall not stop to quote the different writings of observers who have
interested themselves in Coca. It may be inferred from the preceding
statements that Coca possesses this particular character, viz., of
enabling those who make use of it to withstand the greatest fatigue.
Men employed in hard work in mines, couriers obliged to traverse
mountainous countries difficult of travel without being able to take
much rest, in a word, persons subject to overwork in every way, all
agree in recognizing the strengthening and nerve-fortifying action
of Coca. It supports them, economizes their forces, prevents their
succumbing to lassitude—in short, augments their vitality.
When the Indian has a good supply of Coca he undertakes, without the
slightest fear, the most difficult and longest voyages, even into
fever-stricken countries.
When he passes before an _apachecta_ (a quadrangular mound which
the natives raise on the sides of the roads at certain points for a
halting-place), the Indian divests himself of his wraps, takes his quid
of Coca from his mouth, always after having previously exhausted it,
and, in order to draw down upon it the blessing of Pachacamac, their
sovereign master of the world, he throws it against the consecrated
hillock. Thus, that which particularly characterizes these kinds of
_tumuli_ are the green splashes of Coca with which they are literally
covered.
The name of _coqueros_ is given to the chewers of Coca. It seems that
this plant procured for them dreams like those to which hachisch gives
rise.
In native therapeutics, this plant is used to dress ulcers and all
kinds of sores. The Indians also use it to combat asthma, jaundice,
colic, etc.
Coca is consumed chiefly in Peru, Bolivia, Colombia, and Brazil. Since
1863—the time from which our first efforts to popularize it date—its
use has rapidly become general, and it may be stated that to-day it is
known and used in all civilized countries.
[Illustration]
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