used as
spinach, but the seeds are the most sought after for food.

Don Pablo having called Leon to assist him, a quantity of the seeds were
soon collected into a vessel, and carried to the place which they had
chosen for their camp; and, as it was now dark enough, the fire was
kindled and the cooking-pot got ready. The Dona Isidora, although a
fine lady, was one of those who had all her life been accustomed to look
after her household affairs: and this, it may be remarked, is a somewhat
rare virtue among the Peruvian ladies, who are generally too much given
to dress and idleness. It was not so, however, with the wife of Don
Pablo. She knew how to look after the affairs of the _cuisine_, and
could dress any of the peculiar dishes of the country with the best of
cooks. In a short while, therefore, an excellent supper was ready, of
which all ate heartily, and then, wrapping themselves up in their
ponchos, lay down to sleep.

CHAPTER FOUR.

THE SUPPER OF GUAPO.

I have said all ate of the supper. This is not strictly true. One of
the party did not touch it, and that was old Guapo. Why? Was he not
hungry like the rest? Yes; as hungry as any of them. Why then did he
not eat of the _charqui_ and ocas? Simply because Guapo had a supper of
a very different kind, which he carried in his pouch, and which he liked
much better than the charqui stew. What was it? It was "coca."

"Chocolate," you will say, or, as some call it, "cocoa," which should be
called, to name it properly, "cacao." No, I answer--it was not
chocolate, nor cocoa, nor cacao neither.

"It must have been cocoa-nuts, then?" No; nor yet cocoa-nuts. The
"coca," upon which Guapo made his supper, and which contented his
stomach perfectly for the night, was an article very different from
either the cacao which makes chocolate, or the nut of the cocoa-palm.
You are now impatient to hear what sort of thing it was, and I shall
tell you at once.

The coca is a small tree or shrub about six feet in height, which grows
in the warmer valleys among the Andes mountains. Its botanical name is
_Erythroxylon coca_. Its leaves are small and of a bright green colour,
and its blossoms white. Its fruits are very small scarlet berries. It
is a native plant, and, therefore, found in a wild state; but it is
cultivated by the planters of these countries in fields regularly laid
out, and hence called "cocales." This plant is raised from the seed,
and when t