THE CACTUS FORESTS OF CENTRAL BOLIVIA 333 



inflicted was sufficient to inspire proper respect in the 

 future. 



A brisk canter of eighteen miles took us from Comarapa 

 to Pulcina, also known as San Isidro. A tame condor was 

 standing dolefully in the centre of the open square about 

 which the houses were built; it was a friendly bird and liked 

 to be petted and to romp, but was pretty rough at times, 

 and picked off pieces of skin during the course of its rather 

 too affectionate caresses. 



As we unloaded the mules the bells in the tiny box-like 

 church began to tinkle, and all the people rushed out of 

 their houses, bearing lighted candles in their hands. They 

 hurried to one of the huts where a youth lay dying, and 

 crowded into the one dingy room, filling it to overflowing, 

 and raising their voices in wails and lamentations; this 

 continued for half an hour. No priest or physician was 

 present; only the noisy mob of half -wild people, to whom 

 death comes as a divertisement from the daily humdrum of 

 half -lived lives, to speed the parting soul to the great beyond. 



Pulcina was swarming with dogs. It seemed as if each 

 family owned at least half a dozen. They were a hungry 

 mongrel lot, that roamed at large, snarling at passers-by and 

 rending the night with howls and fighting. It was impos- 

 sible to keep them out of the houses, and no matter how 

 often they were driven away they always returned to rum- 

 mage among the luggage and attempt to tear open the pro- 

 vision-sacks. Toward morning, when the dogs had de- 

 parted, pigs came to take their place. Each of them wore 

 a long, forked stick over the neck, like an inverted Y; an- 

 other stick was lashed across the bottom so that the pig's 

 neck was enclosed in a complete wooden triangle. This 

 arrangement would have kept the pigs from crawling 

 through fences, had there been any. Some of the con- 

 trivances were so large that they had apparently been made 

 in the hope that the animals would eventually grow to fit 

 them; but as it was, they touched the ground and made 

 the wearers think they were constantly about to step over 



