Dr Tscliudi on Coca. 303 



from the aslies of the musa root. The application of the un- 

 slaked lime demands some precaution, for if it comes in direct 

 contact with the lips and gums, it causes a very painful burn- 

 ing. During a fatiguing ride across the level heights, where, 

 owino- to the cold wind, I experienced a difficulty of respiration, 

 my arriero recommended me to chew coca, assuring me that 

 I would experience great relief from so doing. He lent me 

 his huallqui, but, owing to my awkward manner of using it, I 

 cauterised my lips so severely that I did not venture on a 

 second experiment. 



The flavour of coca is not unpleasant. It is slightly bitter, 

 aromatic, and similar to the worst kind of green tea. When 

 mixed with the ashes of the musa root, it is somewhat pun- 

 gent, and more pleasant to European palates than it is with- 

 out that addition. The smell of the fresh-dried leaves in a 

 mass is almost overpowering ; but this smell entirely goes 

 when they are packed in the sacks. All who masticate coca, 

 have a very bad breath, pale lips and gums, greenish and 

 stumpy teeth, and an ugly black mark at the corners of the 

 mouth. An inveterate coquero, or coca chewer, is known at 

 the first glance. His unsteady gait, his yellow-coloured skin, 

 his 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 juice when taken in excess. 

 All the mountain Indians are addicted more or less to the 

 practice of masticating coca. Each man consumes, on the 

 average, between one 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, which 

 usually occupies upwards of a quarter of an hour; and after 

 that they smoke a paper cigar, which crowns the zest of 

 the coca mastication. He who indulges for a time in the 

 use of coca, finds it difficult, indeed almost impossible, to re- 

 linquish it. This fact I saw exemplified in the cases of 

 several persons of high respectability in Lima, who are in the 

 habit of retiring daily to a private apartment for the purpose 

 of masticating coca. They r.>uld not do this openly, because 



