476 A VISIT TO THE CACHAPUAL. 



were twice driven under shelter by the road-side, and did not finally reach my friend's hacienda 

 until after sundown. A warm welcome and dry clothes soon dispelled the thoughts of previous 

 discomfort ; and though occasionally startled by still recurring earthquakes, they were quite 

 as frequently stimulants to sprightly conversation as sources of terror. The injury to niy 

 eye required abstinence from labor of every kind in order to restore it, and nearly two weeks 

 were passed in rambling about the vineyards and woods near the mansion riding occasionally 

 to admire anew the wonder of the Angostura, and to become more fully impressed with the 

 amazing productiveness of the soil. 



Whilst there, the ladies of the family went in their cart Chile fashion to pass the evening 

 with one of the neighbors. These carts are four and a half or five feet broad by twelve or 

 thirteen feet long, and are covered with strong rushes or flags neatly woven together. As the 

 arched roof is high enough for a woman to stand under and is water-tight, is closed by curtains 

 at the two extremities, and there are barred windows in the sides, they are not altogether 

 uncomfortable portable houses. They have but two huge wheels and wooden axles ; and as 

 neither tallow nor tar is used on them, they make a screeching noise by no means agreeable to the 

 nerves of every stranger. Most families travel to and from the city and their country-seats in 

 these vehicles. Their beds are spread on the floor, where the travellers lounge and sleep with 

 great satisfaction, they say, because the motion of the cart and the noise of the wheels produce 

 irresistible drowsiness. The floor is large enough for four single beds ; and on an excursion a 

 dozen will find seats the party jogging along, behind the two yokes of oxen that draw them, 

 at a pace which would astonish our railroad and steamboat people. When starting on a journey 

 of any length, as they often do in trains of two or three carts, they carry provisions with them; 

 and if there are young people, they usually have a guitar, and their monotonous songs may be 

 heard as they creep over the road. The oxen are always fine, large animals : the first pair are 

 secured to a heavy wooden tongue by a yoke lashed on the back of their necks with thongs of 

 raw hide ; and the second pair are attached to the yoke of the first by a stout rope of similar 

 material. The driver (or, as he would be more properly named, the leader) marches in front, 

 with a pole fifteen feet long, armed at one end with a bit of pointed iron. This pole is carried 

 on his shoulder, with one extremity resting on the yoke of the oxen nearest him. When he 

 turns they follow ; and it is only as they are perverse, or he desires to quicken their speed, that 

 he uses the goad to them. His head, loosely enveloped in a kerchief to keep dust from the 

 hair and promote circulation of the air about it, is surmounted by a ribbonless, conical straw 

 hat ; his body concealed under a poncho, with gay stripes along the borders and centre ; his 

 nether extremities in flowing trousers of white cotton that reach little below the calf; and his 

 feet are inserted in curiously constructed shoes, with heels almost high enough to trip him 

 over: altogether, the carretero is not the least unique part of the travelling equipage. 



