Cuap. X. COCA. 283 
crop when they return in January or February. The regular plantations 
are all situated some distance from Ega, and across the water, nothing 
. being safe on the mainland near the town on account of the cattle, 
some hundred head of which are kept grazing in the streets by the 
townsfolk. Every morning, soon after daybreak, the women are seen 
paddling off in montarias to their daily labours in these vogas or clearings ; 
the mistresses of households with their groups of Indian servant girls. 
The term agriculture cannot be applied to this business; in this 
primitive country plough, spade, and hoe are unknown even by name. 
The people idle away most of the time at their voc¢as, and have no 
system when they do work, so that a family rarely produces more than 
is required for its own consumption. 
The half-caste and Indian women, after middle age, are nearly al! 
addicted to the use of Ypadu, the powdered leaves of a plant (Ery- 
throxylon coca) which is well known as a product of the eastern parts 
of Peru, and is to the natives of these regions what opium is to the 
Turks and betel to the Malays. Persons who indulge in Ypadu at Ega are 
held in such abhorrence, that they keep the matter as secret as possible ; 
so it is said, and no doubt with truth, that the slender result of the 
women’s daily visits to their vocas is owing to their excessive use of 
this drug. They plant their little plots of the tree in retired nooks in 
the forest, and keep their stores of the powder in hiding-places near 
the huts which are built on each plantation. ‘Taken in moderation, 
Ypadu has a stimulating and not injurious effect, but in excess it is very 
weakening, destroying the appetite, and producing in time great nervous 
exhaustion. I once had an opportunity of seeing it made at the house ° 
of a Maraua Indian on the banks of the Jutahi. The leaves were dried 
on a mandioca oven, and afterwards pounded in a very long and narrow 
wooden mortar. When about half pulverised, a number of the large 
leaves of the Cecropia palmata (candelabrum tree) were burnt on the 
floor, and the ashes dirtily gathered up and mixed with the powder. 
The Ypaduti-eaters say that this prevents the ill-effects which would arise 
from the use of the pure leaf, but I should think the mixture of 
so much indigestible filth would be more likely to have the opposite 
result. 
We lived at Ega, during most part of the year, on turtle. The great 
fresh-water turtle of the Amazons grows on the upper river to an 
immense size, a full-grown one measuring nearly three feet in length by 
two in breadth, and is a load for the strongest Indian. Every house 
has a little pond, called a curral (pen), in -the back-yard to hold a stock 
of the animals through the season of dearth—the wet months; those 
who have a number of Indians in their employ sending them out for a 
month when the waters are low, to collect a stock, and those who have 
not, purchasing their supply ; with some difficulty, however, as they are 
rarely offered for sale. The price of turtles, like that of all other 
articles of food, has risen greatly with the introduction of steam-vessels. 
When I arrived in 1850, a middle-sized one could be bought pretty 
readily for ninepence, but when I left in 1859, they were with difficulty 
obtained at eight and nine shillings each. The abundance of turtles, or 
rather the facility with which they can be found and caught, varies with 
