Food, Drink, Narcotics.
Syrup and a kind of vinegar were made from the juice of the maguey and also syrup was made from the juice extracted from the stalk of the maize. They made from the grain of the maize chica, which was the national drink of Peru, and chica also was made from the grain of the quinoa. But more desired than food or drink was the narcotic effect of the coca, whose leaves were gathered and dried, mixed with lime or bone-ash, and thus made into a preparation for chewing. Tobacco was used by the Peruvians but they "differed from every other Indian nation to whom it was known, by using it only for medicinal purposes, in the form of snuff."[19]