78 THE ALTAR OF WALLEECHU. [chap. iv. 



distressing passage ; for now it was sufficiently desolate. 

 The valley of the Rio Negro, broad as it is, has merely 

 been excavated out of the sandstone plain ; for immediately 

 above the bank on which the town stands, a level country 

 commences, which is interrupted only by a few trifling 

 valleys and depressions. Everywhere the landscape wears 

 the same sterile aspect ; a dry gravelly soil supports tufts 

 of brown withered grass, and low scattered bushes, armed 

 with thorns. 



Shortly after passing the first spring we came in sight 

 of a famous tree, which the Indians reverence as the altar 

 ofWalleechu. It is situated on a high part of the plain, 

 and hence is a landmark visible at a great distance. As 

 soon as a tribe of Indians come in sight of it, they offer 

 their adorations by loud shouts. The tree itself is low, 

 much branched, and thorny : just above the root it has a 

 diameter of about three feet. It stands by itself without 

 any neighbour, and was indeed the first tree we saw ; after- 

 wards we met with a few others of the same kind, but 

 they were far from common. Being winter the tree had 

 no leaves, but in their place numberless threads by which 

 the various offerings, such as cigars, bread, meat, pieces 

 of cloth, etc., had been suspended. Poor Indians, not 

 having anything better, only pull a thread out of their 

 ponchos, and fasten it to the tree. Richer Indians are 

 accustomed to pour spirits and mat^ into a certain hole, 

 and likewise to smoke upwards, thinking thus to afford 

 all possible gratification to Walleechu. To complete the 

 scene, the tree was surrounded by the bleached bones of 

 horses which had been slaughtered as sacrifices. All 

 Indians of every age and sex make their offerings ; they 

 then think that their horses will not tire, and that they 

 themselves shall be prosperous. The Gaucho who told 

 me this, said that in the time of peace he had witnessed 

 this scene, and that he and others used to wait till the 

 Indians had passed by, for the sake of stealing from 

 Walleechu the offerings. 



The Gauchos think that the Indians consider the tree as 

 the god itself; but it seems far more probable that they 

 regard it as the altar. The only cause which I can imagine 

 for this choice, is its being a landmark in a dangerous 

 passage. The Sierra de la Ventana is visible at an immense 

 distance ; and a Gaucho told me that he was once riding 

 with an Indian a few miles to the north of the Rio Colorado, 



