ON COCA LEAVES. 249 



any moisture or dampness when storing them. Every 100 plants furnish 

 an arroha 21 lbs. of leaves, worth, in Lima, about 7 dols., or 30c. a pound 

 The leaf of this plant is to the Indian of Peru what tobacco is to the 

 labouring classes of the southern states, a luxury. 



Supplied with an abundance of it, he sometimes performs prodigies 

 of labour, and can go without food for several days. Without it he is 

 miserable, and will not work. It is said to be a powerful stimulant to 

 the nervous system, and, like strong tea or coffee, to take away sleep ; 

 but, unlike tobacco and some other stimulants, no one has known it to 

 be injurious to health. The hacienda (estate) of Montana Carabaya pro- 

 duces three crops a-year. It is situated on a stream near San Mateo, on 

 a square inclosed with one-story buildings, a mill for grinding the silver 

 ore, &c. 



About forty hands are employed — Indians of the Sierra, strong hardy- 

 looking fellows, though generally low in stature and stupid in expression. 

 They are silent and patient, and, having coca enough to chew, will do an 

 extraordinary quantity of work. 



They breakfast and commence work at 8 o'clock ; at 11 o'clock they 

 have a recess of half an hour, when they sit down near their place of 

 work, and chew coca mixed with lime, which each one carries in a small 

 gourd, putting it on the mass of coca leaves in his mouth, with a wire 

 pin attached to the stopper of the gourd. They then go to work again 

 till 5 o'clock, when they finish up for the day and dine. 



I have seen them puddling with their naked legs a mass of mud and 

 quicksilver, in water, with the thermometer at 38 deg. (Herndon's Ex- 

 pedition, 1853). 



It is said that, by taking a sufficient quantity of coca, a man is capa- 

 ble of dispensing with food for five days without any material incon- 

 venience, even though he is engaged in rapid travelling on foot the whole 

 time. Dr. Von Tschudi, in his travels, relates that a Cholo of Huari, 

 named Hatun Huamang, was employed by him in very laborious digging. 

 During the whole time he was in his service, five days and nights, he 

 never tasted any food, and took only two hours' sleep nightly ; but at 

 intervals of two and a-half or three hours he regularly masticated 

 about half-an-ounce of coca-leaves, and he kept an acullico continually in 

 his mouth. 



Dr. Von Tschudi was constantly beside him, and, therefore, had 

 opportunity to observe him closely. The work for which he had engaged 

 him being finished, he accompanied him on a two days' journey of 

 twenty-three leagues across the level heights. Although on foot, he kept 

 pace with the Doctor's mule, and halted only for the Chaechar. 



On leaving, he declared that he would willingly engage himself 

 again for the same amount of work, and that he would go through it 

 without food if he were but allowed a sufficient amount of coca. The 

 village priest said this man was 62 years of age, and he had never known 

 him to be ill in his life. The aboriginal Peruvians, who have been so 

 VOL. III. z 



