DOWN THE COAST OF PERU 277 



bright sunshine. Whenever an obstruction in the track 

 ahead was sighted the brakes were applied and then every- 

 thing was carried around and the trip continued. W r e 

 met a good many Indians on the road-bed; they preferred 

 its use to the rocky trail along the river, and even drove 

 their burros and llamas on it. All employees of the com- 

 pany had orders to punish any one found on the track, in 

 order that they might learn to keep off it, as there would 

 otherwise be a great loss of life when trains begin their 

 runs over the line. The favorite form of chastisement con- 

 sisted of pouncing on the Indians and taking their hats 

 away from them. The head-gear was taken several miles 

 down the track and thrown into the top of a cactus or 

 thorny tree. If the offender resisted the seizure of his 

 hat he was told that he might have it by calling on the 

 foreman of the nearest construction-camp; when he arrived 

 a good lecture was given him and in some instances a fine 

 was imposed. 



It took several hours to reach the end of the line, as 

 landslides and the attendant portages around them had 

 been numerous. We spent the remainder of the day and 

 the night at Arce, an Indian village. Several hundred 

 Quechuas had gathered, as it was market-day ; they brought 

 a good deal of cloth and beautiful blankets to sell, but their 

 prices were several times those asked in more remote re- 

 gions. At night the assembly played on reed flutes and 

 native guitars, sang, danced, and drank chicha; the revelry 

 lasted until the first gray streaks of dawn appeared over 

 the mountain-top, and then the mob dispersed to their dis- 

 tant homes in the high valleys. 



Our journey was continued the morning after reaching 

 Arce. We had secured a train of good, strong mules and 

 expert Indian arrieros. The trail lay along the river-bed, 

 which was very wide and paved with small pebbles. At 

 numerous points Quechua women had put up small shacks of 

 stones and reeds; they squatted within the makeshift shel- 

 ters all day long. A white rag floating above from a tall 



