[Footnote 15: “As it is easily damaged by damp in transit, the only absolute security is to have it soldered in tin or zinc, enclosed in wood; such packages generally contain two tambores, or about a Spanish quintal of 100 pounds. Although shipped from many ports along the whole coast, the principal port in Peru seems to be Salaverry, the port of entry to Truxillo, and the principal port for Bolivia is Arica, Mollendo being now closed by the civil war in Peru.”—Squibb’s Ephemeris, ii. 792.] “The Peruvian ordinarily keeps his Coca in a little bag called _chuspa_, which he carries suspended at his side, and which he places in front whenever he intends to renew his _chique_, which he does at regular intervals, even when travelling. The Indian who prepares himself to _acullicar_, _i.e._ to chew, in the first place sets himself as perfectly at ease as circumstances permit. If he has a burden, he lays it down; he seats himself; then, putting his _chuspa_ on his knees, he draws from it one by one the leaves which are to constitute his fresh ‘quid.’ The attention which he gives to this operation is worthy of remark. The complaisance with which the Indian buries his hand in the leaves of a well-filled _chuspa_, the regret he seems to experience when the bag is nearly empty, deserve observation; for these little points prove, as I shall have occasion to repeat further on, that to the Indian the use of Coca is a real source of enjoyment and not the simple consequence of want. “As the Indian deposits the leaves in his mouth he wets them by turning them over with the tongue, forming them into a sort of little ball, which he places against the cheek as a sailor does his tobacco. This done, he takes from his _chuspa_ a little box which generally accompanies the Coca, and removes from it a very small quantity of an alkaline paste, called _llipta_, which is the ordinary condiment to the leaf. The _llipta_ which the Peruvians, and especially the Bolivians, are in the habit of using, is made of the ashes of the Quinoa (_Chenopodium Quinoa_) or of those of the common _Cereus_. The ashes of several other plants, however, are used for the same purpose, they are often sold in the markets in the form of little flat cakes. In some parts of America lime is substituted for them. “From the constancy with which the Indians employ an alkali with the Coca, one might presume that it favours the solution of the active matter of the leaf; but on this head we know nothing positive. Others have said that the _llipta_ was intended to neutralise the acid of the leaf; but it is easy to convince oneself that the Coca contains no principle of this nature in appreciable quantity.