I 



I 



COCA. 187 



the Incas, and that it was used in all public ceremonies, either 

 for fumigation or as an offering to the gods. The priests 

 chewed coca while performing their rites, and the favour of the 

 invisible powers was only to be obtained by a present of these 

 highly valued leaves. No work begun witliout coca could come 

 to a happy termination, and divine honours were paid to the 

 shrub itself. 



After a period of more than three centuries, Christianity has 

 not yet been able to eradicate these deeply-rooted superstitious 

 feelings, and everywhere the traveller still meets with traces of 

 the ancient belief in its m3^sterious powers. To the present 

 day, the miners of Cerro de Pasco throw chewed coca against 

 the hard veins of the ore, and affirm that they can then be more 

 easily worked, — a custom transmitted .to them from their fore- 

 fathers, who were fully persuaded that the Coyas or subterranean 

 divinities rendered the mountains impenetrable unless previously 

 propitiated by an offering of coca. Even now the Indians put 

 coca into the mouths of their dead, to insure them a welcome 

 on their passage to another world ; and whenever they find one 

 of their ancestral mummies, they never fail to offer it some of 

 the leaves. 



During the first period after the conquest of Peru, the 

 Spaniards endeavoured to extirpate by all possible means the 

 use of coca, from its being so closely interwoven with the 

 Indian superstitions ; but the proprietors of the mines soon 

 became aware how necessary it was for the successful prosecution 

 of their undertakings ; the planters also found after a time that 

 the Indians would not work without it ; private interest pre- 

 A ailed, as it always does in the long run, over religious Zealand 

 despotic interdictions, and in the last century we even find a 

 Jesuit, Don Antonio Julian, regretting that the use of coca had 

 not been introduced into Europe as well as that of tea and 

 coffee. 



When we consider its remarkable properties, it is indeed 

 astonishing that it has so long remained unnoticed. Were it 

 concealed in the interior of Africa, or extremely difficult to 

 procure, this neglect could be more easily accounted for ; but 

 hundreds of our vessels annually frequent the harbours of Peru 

 and Bolivia, where it may be obtained in large quantities, and 

 yet its tonic and stimulating powers are but just beginning to 

 attract the attention of the medical world. 



