Farina ais^d Coca. 291 



if put into the market, would probably eclipse that of Ceara, 

 the best Brazilian. Wild rice grows abundantly on the 

 banks of the rivers and lakes. The cultivated grain is 

 said to yield forty fold. Most of the tobacco comes down 

 from the Maranon and Madeira. It is put up in slender 

 rolls from three to six feet long, tapering at each end, and 

 wound with palm fibre. The sugar-cane is an exotic from 

 Southeastern Asia, but grows well. The first sugar made 

 in the Xew World was by the Dutch in the island of St. 

 Thomas, 1610. Farina is the principal farinaceous pro- 

 duction of Brazil. The mandioca or cassava {Manihot 

 utilissiina) from which it is made is supposed to be indig- 

 enous, though it is not found wild. It does not grow at 

 a higher altitude than 2000 feet. Life and death are 

 blended in the plant, yet every part is useful. The cattle 

 eat the leaves and stalks, while the roots are ground into 

 pulp, which, when pressed and baked, forms farina, the 

 bread of all classes. The juice is a deadly poison : thirty- 

 five drops were suflicient to kill, in six minutes, a negro con- 

 victed of murder; but it deposits a fine sediment of pure 

 starch that is the well-known tapioca; and the juice, when 

 fermented and boiled, forms a drink. On the upper wa- 

 ters grow the celebrated coca, a shrub with small, light- 

 green leaves, having a bitter, aromatic taste. The pow- 

 dered leaves, mixed with lime, form yjMclu. This is to 

 Peruvians what opium is to the Turk, betel to the Malay, 

 and tobacco to the Yankee. Thirty million pounds are 

 annually consumed in South America. It is not, however, 

 an opiate, but a powerful stimulant. With it the Indian 

 will perform prodigies of labor, traveling days without 

 fatigue or food. Yon Tschudi considers its moderate con- 

 sumption wholesome, and instances the fact that one coca- 

 chewer attained the good old age of one hundi-ed and thirty 

 years ; but when used to excess it leads to idiocy. The 



