The universal geography : earth and its inhabitants

RESOURCES OP PAEAQUAY. 823
caa nana. But there are no longer any plantations, but only thickets of the wild
plant, which is often recklessly cut down in order the more easily to gather tlie
leaves. The ijcrbatcros, who have to make long journeys to these grounds, first
dry the foliage and tender branchlets over a slow fire, and then reduce them to a
powder when they are ready for the market. The decoction appears to act both
as a stimulant and as a substitute for food, by retarding the progress of digestion.
About half the yearly crop is required for the local consumption, the rest being
exported.
It is even claimed for mate that it stimulates the physical and mental powers,
without any waste to the system. And herein, remarks De Bourgade, lies the
secret of the preference shown by Americans for this beverage. It is not from
any scientific theories, but from practical experience, that they have been convinced
Fig'. 13S.
—
Teeba MATfi REaioNs of Paeaguat kwd Bkazhi.
Scale 1 : 14,000,000.
West or Lreenwyich
Verba MaW.
. 310 Milea.
of its immense superiority over tea and coffee. Coca also is just as available to
them as the ilex; but while the latter has become as indispensable as manioc
itself, coca has been rejected, and is now consumed only by a few Indian tribes
and some residents in the mountain districts.
Such a practical verdict in its favour proclaims its excellency ; it is a popular,
as distinguished from a scientific, tribute to its virtues, and may well provoke the
inquiry why the Old World has remained indifferent, continuing to import tea
from China and India, and coffee from Arabia and the Colonies, but neglecting
the yerba mate of South America ? Yet the supply is adequate to all possible
demands ; subject, however, at present, it must bo owned, to the disadvantage
that the yerba is under no well-organised system of cultivation.*
* Taraijuny, p. 21.