THE LLAMA. 23 



The cold climate of the Pima naturally confines agriculture 

 to very narrow limits. The only cultivated plant which grows 

 to maturity is the Maca (a species of tropseolum), the tuberous 

 roots of which are used like the potato, and form in many parts 

 the chief food of the inhabitants. This plant grows best at an 

 elevation of twelve or thirteen thousand feet, and is not planted 

 in the loAver regions, where its roots are said to be completely 

 unpalatable. Barley is also cultivated in the Puna, but never 

 ripens, and is cut green for forage. 



The animal kingdom is more amply represented ; for there is 

 no want of food on the grass-covered plains, and wherever this 

 exists, there is room^ for the development of animals appropriate 

 to the climate. 



Thus the Llama and its near relations, the Alpaca^ the Ilua- 

 nacu, and the Vicuna, the largest four-footed animals which 

 Peru possessed before the Spaniards in- 

 troduced the horse and the ox, are all 

 natives of the Puna. Long before the 

 invasion of Pizarro, the llama was used 

 by the ancient Peruvians as a beast of 

 burthen, and was not less serviceable to 

 them than the camel to the Arabs of 

 the desert. The wool served for the ----^..'^is-^^ 



111-11 ^'^^^ LLAMA. 



fabrication of a coarse cloth ; the milk 



and flesh, as food ; the skin, as a warm covering or mantle ; and' 

 without the assistance of the llama, it would have been impos- 

 sible for the Indians to transport goods or provisions over the. 

 high table-lands of the Andes, or for the Incas to have founded 

 and maintained their vast empire. The llama is alsO' histori- 

 cally remarkable as being- the only animal domesticated by the 

 aboriginal Americans. The reindeer of the north * and' the 

 bison of the prairies enjoyed then, as they do now, their savage 

 independence : the llama alone was obliged to submit to the 

 yoke of man. But the llama reminds us- of the dromedary not 

 only by a similar destiny and similar services, but also by a 

 strong resemblance in form and structure, so as to be classed by 

 naturalists in the same family. The unsightly hump is wanting,, 

 but the llama possesses the same callosities on the breast and 



* It is only in the Old World that the reindeer has ever been domesticated. 



