43. In the Puna region the natives are wont with
the help of this roborant to transport burdens over
mountain-heights, like as do the hunters of Mongolia
sustained by another stimulus, arsenic (Macgowan).
Von Tschudi to test the virtues in his own person,
having provided himself one day with a stock for a
mountain-journey was able to traverse defiles fourteen
thousand feet above the sea-level, and without ex
periencing any of the impediments usually felt from
an atmosphere very much attenuated. The narrative
by this traveller concerning a native employed by
him to do some trench-cutting under his immediate
inspection, a work continued through four days and
upon no other refreshment than coca and water by
day and a two hours' sleep at night, seems somewhat
marvellous to the vision of soberer people who have
not been so privileged to travel and " see the world."

" I cannot say how the truth may be —
I tell you the tale as you there may see."



CHAPTER XXVII.
COFFEE AND TEA BY CONTRAST WITH OPIUM.
"C'est toi, divin Cafe, dont I'aimable liqueur
Sans alterer la tete Spanouit le coeur ;
Et je crois, de ginie 6prouvant le reveil,
Boiie dans chaque fouette un rayon de soleil." — Delille.
"The Muses' friend. Tea doth my fancy aid.
Repressing vapors which the head invade." — -Waller.
