VII 
AT MANAOS 
217 
" what a fatal blow would be struck at our trade in 
Salsa if this foreigner should succeed in getting the 
seeds to grow in his own country, where whole 
plantations would soon be made of it : I therefore 
boiled them before I gave them to him." I do not 
suppose that Dr. Natterer ever learnt how it was 
that his seeds had lost their vitality. 
On the Jauauarf I saw a small plantation of 
Ipadil, a shrub of which the powdered leaves are 
chewed by the Indians throughout the Rio Negro. 
I found it to be (as I had expected) the Erythroxylon 
Coca. The leaves are roasted and then pounded 
in a mortar made of the trunk of the Pupunha 
palm, from 4 to 6 feet long, the root being left on 
for the bottom and the soft inside scooped out. It 
is made so long on account of the impalpable nature 
of the powder, which would otherwise fly up and 
choke the operator ; and it is buried deep enough 
in the ground to be w^orked with ease. The pestle 
is made of any hard wood. When sufficiently 
pounded they are mixed with a little tapioca to 
give it consistency. With a chew of Ipadii in his 
cheek an Indian will go two or three days without 
food, and without feeling any desire to sleep. I 
send you the powdered Ipadii and flowering 
specimens of the plant. I wished to send you the 
mortar also, but no sum of money can purchase 
one. I find the greatest difficulty in inducing the 
Indians to part with many things of their own 
manufacture, the reason being that it would be a 
work of time to replace them, and the Indian loves 
ease above all things. Not long ago I saw in the 
hut of an Indian a fishing-line most beautifully 
made of the bark of some tree. All my entreaties 
