Coca appears to enjoy an undisputed reign in the Cordilleras; no other narcotic starts up to share the throne, and this is almost the only one which has not been imitated, or for which some substitute has not either been proposed or used. The antipodes, or nearly so, of this country possesses a plant, which, had it grown freely in other parts of the world might have been heard of more extensively as an indulgence. In Siberia, however, there seems to be little use made of the small indigenous rhododendron, which claims to be one of the most powerful narcotics in the world. Steller, the Russian botanist, had a tame deer which became so intoxicated by browsing on about ten of its leaves, that, after staggering about for some time, it dropped into a deep but troubled sleep for four hours, after which it awoke, apparently free from pain, but would never touch the leaves again. Steller’s servants, after this, took to intoxicating themselves with the leaves without any evil effects. We have also been informed that certain of the Russians have been charged with the habit of following the example of these experimentalists, by getting drunk upon the leaves, which have been used in infusion, as Pallas states, with good effect in the cure of chronic rheumatism. The flowers of another species of rhododendron are eaten as a narcotic by the Hill people of India, but in these instances the extent of their use is so small, and the persons indulging in them so few, that no claim can be set up for them, except as minor narcotics occasionally employed, when the other and more important substances cannot readily be obtained. For the basis of much which this chapter contains, we are indebted to the Travels in Bolivia and Peru of that worthy trio of doctors, Pöppig, Weddell, and Tschuddi, besides three times as many more, less noted and less known, but whose information was not less to be relied upon on the points concerning which they have spoken. Whether the votaries of our Lady of Yongas are as numerous as has been asserted, or only of the number we have suggested—whether the influence of this plant over the stomachic regions is sufficient to subdue the pangs of hunger, or allay the cruelties of thirst, or these are only effects due to the imagination—whether it has the marvellous power of softening the adamantine rock, or strengthening and supporting the lungs in the ascent of Andean summits, or whether these, and all of these, are fictions proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain, it is, nevertheless, certain, that a great amount of interest gathers around this plant, which associates itself so intimately with the country in which it flourishes, that, as for centuries past, so for centuries to come, coca will remain the characteristic plant of the Peruvian nation, as tea was, and is, of the Chinese. CHAPTER XXII. WHITEWASH AND CLAY.