56 THE OASES OF THE NORTH-WEST 



driving the now docile beasts in front of them, and 

 putting no loads on them in order that they may keep 

 fresh, make for the fair at Huari in Bolivia, or even 

 as far as Sucre. There they sell at a hundred and fifty 

 piastres each the animals which they had bought for 

 half that price before being broken in. The number 

 of mules hibernating at Poma is about 4,000. 



The business done in the fairs of the southern Andes 

 is very varied in character, but their main function 

 was always as markets for stock. 1 They are held in 

 March or April, when the rains do not fall, but pasture 

 is still abundant and travelling easy. The fair at 

 Vilque, north of Lake Titicaca, is no longer visited by 

 dealers in Argentine mules. The Salta fair which was 

 held at Sumala, near Rosario de Lerma, has ceased 

 to be important ; at the close of the eighteenth century 

 it was the chief centre of the mule-trade. The fair 

 held at Jujuy is still, like the annual pilgrimage to 

 the Virgen del Valle de Catamarca, one of the great 

 dates in the life of the Andes. In the eighteenth 

 century it was mainly a cattle-fair, but it is now fre- 

 quented only by mule-dealers. The development of 

 the railways is gradually causing it to decline. 



The cattle-trade has long been really a form of 

 barter. The Argentinians who took their herds to Peru 

 brought back with them European goods that had 

 come via Panama and the Pacific. At Jachal direct 

 communication with Argentina is still so costly that 

 they prefer to get many manufactured articles from 

 Chile. Everywhere else, however, the sellers of stock 

 take payment in cash. The Santa Mariefios bring 

 back from Bolivia only a few bags of coca and, for 

 chief payment, letters of exchange, which they cash 

 in the Salta banks when they return. Their gains 

 swell the profits of the merchants of Salta, Catamarca, 



1 There is an interesting study of fairs on the elevated tableland 

 by G. M. Wrigley, " Fairs of the Central Andes," in the Geographical 

 Review (New York), vii. 1919, pp. 65-80. 



