64: R. NEGRO TO R. COLORADO. [CIIAP. iv. 



have already said, is nearly eighty miles distant : and as we travelled 

 slowly, we were two days and a half on the road. The whole line 

 of country deserves scarcely a better name than that of a desert. 

 Water is found only in two small wells; it is called fresh; but even 

 at this time of the year, during the rainy season, it was quite 

 brackish. In the summer this must be a distressing passage ; for 

 now it was sufficiently desolate. The valley of the Eio 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 of Walleechu. 

 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 ; afterwards 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. Kicher Indians are accustomed 

 to pour spirits and mate into a certain hole, and likewise to smoke 

 upwards, thinking thus to afford all possible gratification to Wal- 

 leechu. 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 



