CHAPTER IV.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, betweenan 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 thechaccharor 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 oracullico, a thin slip of damp wood is then thrust into theishcupuruor gourd, containing lime, and when drawn out, some portion of the powder it contains adheres. Theacullico, 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 calledLluctaorLlipta. In using it a piece is broken off and masticated along with theacullico. In some regions theLliptais made from the musa root.
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.”
“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.”
“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 anacullicocontinually 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 thechacchar. 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.”
“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 anacullicocontinually 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 thechacchar. 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 moderateuse of Coca is not merely innoxious, but that it may even be very conducive to health.”
“Setting aside all extravagant and visionary notions on the subject, I am clearly of opinion that the moderateuse 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 ofAnthoxanthum 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.
Both Pöppig and Von Tschudi give a doleful account of the intemperate use of Coca by the inveteratecoquero, 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 whitecoquerosof good Peruvian families who were addicted tothe 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.”
“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.Coquerosbecome 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 unfortunatecoquero. This complaint,which is calledopilacion, 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.”
“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 unfortunatecoquero. This complaint,which is calledopilacion, 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.