290 IN THE WILDS OF SOUTH AMERICA 



and our personal attendant there were the mail-carrier and 

 his three peons; twelve good, strong mules carried the lug- 

 gage, and there were half a dozen riding and spare animals 

 quite a cavalcade for the kind of undertaking in hand. 



Three days after starting we reached our old camping- 

 spot in the Yungas, and, after stopping for a short chat 

 with the old caretaker of Senor Quiroga's hut we proceeded 

 into what was for us terra incognita. 



Numerous huts of flimsy construction are scattered along 

 the entire twenty miles or more of cultivated slopes; each 

 has a fenced-in area paved with flat stones upon which 

 coca leaves are dried. We stopped at a number of these 

 dwellings in an attempt to buy fruit or vegetables, but un- 

 fortunately the men were all away working in the fields, 

 and any one who has attempted to purchase anything from 

 the average Quechua squaw knows how hopeless a task it 

 is. Although they may have a superabundance of the 

 article desired, they seem to take great delight in refusing 

 to sell anything to a stranger; then the only method to 

 follow is to take what is needed, offer a fair price for it 

 and pass on, leaving them in the midst of their wild rant- 

 ings; the men are easier to deal with. 



The peons, and the patrdn as well, stopped at each hut 

 where the white flag announced that chicha was for sale, 

 and attempted to drink enough to last them until their 

 return; after their money gave out they left articles of 

 clothing in payment for the drinks. It was therefore a 

 great relief when the last abode of the intoxicating bever- 

 age had been left behind, and we plunged into the wilder- 

 ness. Immediately after leaving the Yungas we ascended 

 a precipitous slope, the top of which was seven hundred 

 feet above the surrounding country, and then descended 

 on the other side until the elevation was only two thou- 

 sand feet; here the forest was more tropical in character, 

 and some of the trees, especially the cottonwoods, reached a 

 height of one hundred and fifty feet, and measured twenty- 

 five feet through the buttressed roots at the base. 



