COCA. 
107 
Eomo Bolitaiy rum, and there, for days together, indulges 
ill his pernicious habit. While under the inllnence of 
coca, his excited fancy riots in the strangest visions, now 
revelling in pictures of ideal beauty, and then hannted by 
dreadful apparitions. Secure from intrusion, he crouches 
in an obscure comer, his eyes immovably fixed upon one 
spot ; and the almost automatic motion of the hauci raising 
the coca to the mouth, and its mechanical chewinir, are 
the only signs of consciousness which ho exhibits. iSome- 
times a deep groan escapes Irom his broasfc, most likely 
when the dismal solitude around him inspires his imai^ina- 
tion with some terrific vision, which he is as little able to 
banish as voluntarily to dismiss bis dreams of ideal felicity. 
How the coquero iinally awakens from his trance, Tschudi 
was never able to ascertain, though most likely the com- 
plete exhaustion of his supply at leugth forces him to 
retui'n to his miserable hut. 
No historical record informs us when the use of the coca 
was introduced, or who first discovered the hidden virtues 
of its leaves. When Pizarro destroyed the empire of 
Atahualpa he found that it played an important part in 
the religious rites of the Incaa, and that it wns used in all 
public ceremonies J 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 ti-ansmitted to them from their forefathers, who 
