COLINAS. 



229 



feet while we took matee, more refreshing still than tea after a day's 

 journey. 



In due time a most plentiful supper appeared, beginning with 

 eggs in various forms, followed by stews and ollas of beef, mutton, 

 and fowls, and terminated by apples ; to which full justice was done, 

 from the egg to the apple, as well as to Don Jorge's wines. 



September 3d. — This morning the sun rose clear and bright, and 

 discovered the Andes, and even the nearer hills, completely covered 

 with snow which fell last night, while it rained below. Before break- 

 fast we were shown the storehouses of the farm. First, the granary, 

 now nearly emptied of its wheat : on one part of the spare floor a 

 well-dried hide was spread, and on it fresh beef for immediate use, 

 according to the fashion of the country, cut in strips about three 

 inches wide, the bones being thrown away. There were, besides, 

 hanging round thongs of every kind, and lacas, and bands all ready 

 for use. Within the granary was a second dispense, hung round with 

 tallow candles ; on the floor, there were many hundred arobas of 

 tallow in skins, ready for sale ; and, in one corner, I saw a heap of 

 skimmings, i. e. the refuse fat after the melting of the suet for tallow. 

 This, I find, is what the peons use, instead of butter or oil, to enrich 

 their cookery, and it is as necessary to them as ghee to an East 

 Indian. In another place, were the yokes and goads for the oxen, 

 and the spades for the diggers of water-channels, &c. ; these are of 

 very hard wood, with a long handle, the use of iron spades being, as 

 yet, confined to the gardens near the city and places near the port, 

 where foreigners have made them common. A side-door in the 

 storehouse admitted us into a square court ; on one side of which is 

 the butchery, where, in the proper season, that is, late in autumn, 

 the beasts are slaughtered for hides, tallow, and charqui. At present 

 it looks like an unfinished shed ; in the season it is covered with 

 green boughs, in order that the animals, and all about them, may be 

 kept cool. On one side of the square is a melting-house for the 

 tallow. The pots are made of clay upon the estate ; they are two 

 inches and a half thick. Next to the melting-house is the shed with 



