THE LLAMAS 1001 



c^ 

 According to the account of Tschudi, during the wet season of the 



year the vicunas seek the highest ridges of the Cordillera, where 

 plant life is but sparse. On account of the softness of their feet, they prefer upland 

 meadows, and avoid the stony, naked peaks, while they still more carefully shun 

 glaciers and snow-fields. In the hot season, on the other hand, they descend into 

 the higher valleys. The reason of this reversal of the usual plan of migration ap- 

 pears to be that in the Cordillera the vegetation on the higher ridges is completely 

 withered up by the heat of the dry summer season, and that such herbage as remains 

 is only to be found in the valleys, where it is nourished by springs or swamps. 

 Vicunas feed all day, and it is seldom that a flock is seen lying down. During the 

 pairing season the males fight with great fierceness for the supremacy of the flocks, 

 each of which comprises one male accompanied by from six to fifteen females. The 

 male always remains a few paces behind the flock, and gives notice of any approach- 

 ing danger by uttering a shrill whistle, at the same time rapidly advancing; the 

 flock then collects, and takes to immediate flight in a swift gallop, the male bring- 

 ing up the rear, and often stopping to observe the foe. 



In the month of February the females give birth to a single fawn, which as soon 

 as it comes into the world is endowed with remarkable speed and endurance. The 

 young males remain with their dams until full grown, when they are expelled 

 from the flock by the united force of the females. These young males unite in 

 separate flocks of from twenty to thirty head; and as such flocks have no special 

 guardian, but all the members are constantly on the alert, they are exceedingly 

 difficult to approach. During the pairing season incessant fights take place among 

 these male flocks, and the animals then utter a peculiar neighing sort of cry which 

 can be heard at a great distance. 



The Indians hunt vicunas by forming a circular enclosure of stakes 



connected by cords, with a diameter of about half a mile, and an en- 

 trance of some couple of hundred feet in width. The cords connecting the stakes 

 are hung with bright-colored pieces of cloth, which flutter in the wind and prevent 

 the animals from trying to break through. When the enclosure is ready, the 

 hunters make a wide circuit on the mountains, and drive in all the flocks of vicunas 

 there may be in the neighborhood; the animals being dispatched by the bolas a 

 weapon consisting of two large balls connected by a string, which is whirled round 

 the hunter's head and then hurled with unerring aim at his victim. The flesh is 

 divided among the Indians, but the skins belong to the priests. The wool, although 

 small in quantity, is fine and of excellent quality; and in 1826 a law was made that 

 the vicunas should be caught and shorn, instead of killed, but the wildness of the 

 animals rendered this impracticable. In the time of the Incas, vicuna hunts, in 

 which as many as thirty thousand men took part, were organized upon a large scale. 

 An area of some twenty miles would be completely surrounded, and every living 

 thing driven in'; and it is said that at times as many as forty thousand head of game, 

 including bears, pumas, foxes, deer, vicunas, and guanacos, would be thus sur- 

 rounded. Such a hunt would last for a week, during which many hundred head of 

 game would be killed, Tschudi mentioning that in a hunt which he joined, upward 

 of one hundred and twenty-two vicunas were slaughtered. 



