A MULE-BACK JOURNEY 347 



were to be had in abundance; mutton, bread, peaches, 

 and eggs were particularly plentiful; but the lack of fruits 

 and vegetables requiring a warm climate and rich soil was 

 very noticeable. One could purchase all the necessaries 

 of life in any of the numerous stores; most of them were 

 imported from the United States and Europe. 



We spent the night before reaching Sucre in a cluster 

 of Indian dwellings called Cghilka. The pronunciation of 

 the name is difficult to a foreigner, because two of the three 

 "cliks" employed in the Quechua language are used in say- 

 ing the word. Cghilka consisted of half a dozen low hovels, 

 built of irregular stones and roofed over with grass. Flocks 

 of sheep and a few burros nibbled the short grass, and goats 

 clambered along the face of precipices unscalable to human 

 beings; some of the latter also stood on the top of stone 

 fences, or roofs, and several times we saw individuals that 

 had climbed into the branches of a leaning mimosa and 

 were unconcernedly browsing on the leaves. 



The Indian women, it seemed to us, were everlastingly 

 spinning in order to keep up the necessary supply of cloth- 

 ing. Those at Cghilka were no exceptions; but they also 

 made unusually pretty blankets. In spite of the fact that 

 many colors, such as red, blue, green, yellow, and white 

 were used in the same blanket, the combination was so 

 harmonious that the result was most pleasing. As a whole, 

 the work somewhat resembles that of the Navajos, but the 

 texture is not quite as fine. They also work attractive 

 geometric designs into the pattern that immediately dis- 

 tinguishes the product of this region from that of any other. 

 This is, perhaps, a retention of an ancient custom, for, it 

 seems as if in olden times the inhabitants of each locality 

 wore ponchos or blankets of a distinctive design; then, 

 when the nation gathered in the holy city of Cuzco to cele- 

 brate some religious festival, it was possible to tell by these 

 insignia from which part of the empire they came. 



From Cghilka to Sucre is a distance of only eighteen 

 miles, over a practically level plain, the elevation of which 



