274 IN THE WILDS OF SOUTH AMERICA 



dies down for want of leaders. These Indians still retain 

 the despenadora, or death-doctor, in the more remote and 

 inaccessible regions. This person is a woman who pos- 

 sesses the knack of doing away with the aged and infirm of 

 her district, and the office is handed down from mother 

 to daughter. When any one within her jurisdiction be- 

 comes too old to work, or is ill with a malady thought to be 

 incurable, the despenadora is called in; she straddles the 

 poor unfortunate and ends his existence by deftly dislocat- 

 ing the vertebrae of the neck. Whenever government offi- 

 cials learn of the operation of one of these women, they are 

 taken into custody and punished. 



One of the favorite sports of the Pacefios is to hunt wild 

 cattle in the high valleys between the peaks. Numerous 

 herds are still in existence and it is said that they are of 

 a savage disposition and furnish good sport. I met an 

 American who had been thrown from his horse and gored 

 by a wild bull that charged him from a distance of several 

 hundred yards. 



The country between La Paz and Oruro is very similar 

 to that we had crossed coming from Guaqui. There are 

 the same vistas of barren plains, green fields, llamas, and 

 asses on the slopes, and dazzling snow-fields in the back- 

 ground. The plateau is strewn with marine fossils, mostly 

 trilobites, reminders of the days when Lake Titicaca was 

 many times its present size. We covered the one hundred 

 and twenty-seven miles to Oruro in six hours, and spent 

 the night there. This city owes its existence to the many 

 mines located near by — some within the city's limits — and 

 to the wealth they yield in tin, silver, and other metals. 

 Next morning the journey was continued toward Cocha- 

 bamba. Shortly before noon the level country was left 

 behind and we started down the eastern slope of a ridge 

 that leads into the lower country. This part of the road- 

 bed is new; the greater part of it is laid on a narrow shelf 

 of rock carved and blasted out of the mountainside. Per- 

 pendicular walls of granite tower above to a height of hun- 



