Alpaca, Guanaco, and Vicuna. 297 



The Indians of the mountains manufacture themselves 

 nearly all their warm clothing from the wool of their animals ; 

 and so many being all black, they are able to appear in dresses 

 of a sable hue without the aid of a dyer ; and numbers of them 

 of both sexes are dressed in black garments, which circum- 

 stance has induced some persons to suppose, that the Peru- 

 vians of the present day are still in mourning for their Incas ; 

 but the true explanation is the fact just noted. 



From the wools of diiferent colours, fancy pieces are also 

 made by these Indians, whose mode of weaving, in so far as 

 I saw it, is primitive in the extreme. When passing through 

 the village of Andamarca, I observed a woman weaving a 

 piece of black cloth : her loom was composed of only four short 

 bits of wood, which were stuck into the ground in the open 

 air before her hut ; she was resting on both her knees, and 

 stooping at the work, and conveyed the weft from one side of 

 the cloth to the other with her fingers — the piece appeared 

 about 18 inches in width. 



A few years ago, there was no fixed price in Bolivia for 

 alpacas, &c., for that varied with the locality and other cir- 

 cumstances. In 1827, when on the route from Potosi to the 

 cor.st, through the desert of Caranja, we were under the ne- 

 cessity of occasionally buying a sheep or llama, for we travelled 

 with a number of mules loaded with silver, and were seventeen 

 days on the journey. We passed some numerous flocks of 

 llamas, alpacas, and sheep, and though not a human habitation 

 was seen throughout one portion of the route of above 200 miles, 

 yet, as was stated by our guides, all these creatures had owners 

 who would miss any which might be taken from their flocks. 

 While on the march one day, our cook first ran down with 

 his mule, and then picked up a sheep from a herd, for which 

 he had not paid, as no person was in sight ; but after we had 

 travelled four hours, or above twelve miles from the spot where 

 our mutton was obtained, an Indian overtook us and held out 

 his hand for " quatro reales," 2s., the price of the sheep, and 

 was quite happy with his half dollar, though he had to trudge 

 24 miles for it ; at the same time I learned that while half a 

 dollar was the price of a sheep there, that of an alpaca was a 

 dollar, and two dollars that of a full grown llama. 



