THE COCA-CHEWER 205 



suspicious, and false; in the prime of life, he has all the ap- 

 |)(\arances of senility, and in later years sinks into complete 

 idiocy. Avoiding the society of man, he seeks the dark forest, 

 or some solitary ruin, and there, for days together, indulges 

 in his pernicious habit. While under the influence of coca, 

 J lis excited fancy riots in the strangest visions, now revelling in 

 j)ictures of ideal beauty, and then haunted by dreadful appari- 

 tions. Secure from intrusion, he crouches in an obscure corner. 

 Ills eyes ■ immovably fixed upon one spot; and the almost 

 automatic motion of the hand raising the coca to the mouth, and 

 its mechanical chewing, are the only signs of consciousness 

 which he exhibits. Sometimes a deep groan escapes from his 

 ])reast, most likely when the dismal solitude around him 

 inspires his imagination with some terrific vision, which he is 

 as little able to banish as voluntarily to dismiss his dreams 

 of ideal felicity. How the coquero finally awakens from his 

 trance, Tschudi was never able to ascertain, though most likely 

 the complete exhaustion of his supply at length forces him to 

 return to his miserable hut. 



Sometimes even Europeans give way to this vice; and Tschudi, 

 during his sojourn in Peru, was acquainted with a Biscayan and 

 an Italian who were both of them incorrigible coqueros. 



No historical record informs us when the use of the coca 

 was introduced, or who first discovered the hidden virtues of its 

 I leaves. When Pizarro destroyed the empire of Atahualpa he 

 I found that it played an important part in the religious rites of 

 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 without 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 mysterious 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- 



