60 The Andes and the xImazon. 



IS'ot a chimney rises above tlie red-tiled roofs, telling of 

 homely hearths beneath. 'No busy hum greets the ear; 

 there ^ are bugles instead of spindles, and jingling church 

 bells in place of rattling carriages. The wandering eye 

 does not look, for a railroad or a telegraph, for even the 

 highways, such as they are, seem deserted, and, save the 

 music made for soldiers and saints, all is silent. The very 

 mountains, too, with their snow-mantled heads, and their 

 sides scarred by volcanic eruptions and ruptured by earth- 

 quake shocks, have a melancholy look. In the words of a 

 great artist, " They look like a world from wdiich not only 

 the human, but the spiritual presences had perished, and the 

 last of the archangels, building the great Andes for their 

 monuments, had laid themselves down to eternal rest, each 

 in his snow-white shroud." 



But let us enter. Passing the ruined chapel " Del Senor 

 del buen pasaje," and crossing by a substantial stone bridge 

 the little Machangara hastening to pay tribute to the Pa- 

 cific, we leave behind us the dirty, dilapidated suburbs of 

 the capital. Soon we cross another bridge — the Bridge of 

 Buzzards — spanning a deep ravine, and gallop through the 

 Plaza de Santo Domingo. Yery different are the sights 

 and sounds from the stir and style of Central Park. The 

 scene has a semi-oriental cast — half Indian, half Egyptian, 

 as if this were the confluence of the Maranon and Mle. 

 Groups of men — not crowds, for there is plenty of elbow- 

 room in Ecuador — in gay ponchos stand chatting in front 

 of little shops, or lean against the wall to enjoy the sun- 

 shine ; beggars in rags or sackcloth stretch forth their lep- 

 rous hands for charity; monks in white, and canons in 

 black, walk in the shade of immense hats ; shoeless soldiers 

 saunter to and fro ; Indians fi'om the mountains in every 

 variety of costume cluster around heaps of vegetables for 

 sale; women in red, brown, and blue frocks are peddling 



