THE LLAMAS. 



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and as there were then no Mules or Horses there, these creatui-es were employed exclusively as 

 beasts of burden, as well as for their flesh, their wool, and hides. Their disposition and their habits 

 also resemble those of the Camel. They have their own peculiar gait and speed, from which they 

 cannot well be made to vary. When irritated they foam at the mouth and spit, sulking and lying down 

 when overloaded. As beasts of draught their most important use is to convey the ores from the mines of 

 Potosi and elsewhere in the Andean range. From the account of Augustin de Zerate, who was a Peru- 

 vian Spanish Government official in the middle of the sixteenth century, we learn that " in places 

 where there is no snow the natives want water, and to supply this deficiency they fill the skins of 

 Sheep [Llamas being meant] with water, and make other living Sheep carry them, for it must be 

 remarked that these Slieep of Peru are large enough to serve as beasts of burden. They can carry 

 about one hundred pounds or more, and the Spaniards used to ride them, and they would g^ four 



LLAMA. 



or five leagues a day. "When they are weary they lie down upon the ground, and as there is no 

 means of making them get up, either by beating or assailing them, the load must of necessity be taken 

 off. When there is a man on one of them, if the beast is tired he turns his head round and discharges 

 his saliva, which has an offensive odour, into the rider's face. These animals are of great use and 

 service to their masters, for their wool is very good and fine, particularly that of the breed called 

 Pacas, which have very long fleeces ; and the expense of their food is trifling, as a handful of maize 

 suffices them, and they can go four or five days without water. Their flesh is as good as that of 

 the fat Sheep of Castile." 



It is somewhat difficult to decide exactly the relations of the wild to the domesticated species 

 of the Llamas. It seems most probable that there are two true species, known as the Huanacos 

 (Lama huanacos) and the Vicuna (Lama vicugna), of the former of which the true Llama is a 

 domesticated variety, as the Alpaca is of the latter. 



The HUANACO or Guanaco, as it is sometimes written has a more elongated head and more 

 slender legs than the Vicuna, at the same time that there are elongated warty tubercles upon the 

 hinder limbs not found in the latter species. Its height at the shoulder is three feet and a half. 

 The fur is uniformly brown, at the same time that it is rough and short. It can be domesticated 

 without difficulty. Its tail is short and hairy. Its native haunts are the highlands of Peru and 

 Chili, as well as farther south, where it lives in herds, which descend to the valleys in the winter 

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