248 SOUTH AMERICA— THE ANDES EEGIONS. 



Except during these days of frenzy and ecstasy the Ecuadoreans are a sad 

 and sullen people. The features especially of the women seem haggard with care 

 and biding misery. Some of their customs greatly shock visitors, and uncleanly 

 habits prevail in this land of dust. Yet, despite their sordid surroundings the 

 Quitonians appear to possess the sentiment of form and colour in the highest 

 degree. Notwithstanding the rigid hieratic formulas and conventionalities to 

 which the priests have enslaved them, many of the mestizoes and even of the 

 full-blood Indians succeed in executing really remarkable religious paintings, as 

 well as sculptures of Christs and Madonnas, works greatly admired in Peru and 

 other South American countries, to which they are regularly exported. But the 

 natives have lost one artistic industry, inlaid work in costly woods. It has also 

 been noticed that neither his extreme poverty, nor the dull existence to which he 

 is condemned, has prevented the Ecuadorean from distinguishing himself by the 

 elegant cut and harmoniously -blended colours of his clothes. 



YL 



Topography. 



All the northern towns of Ecuador are comprised within the limits of the 

 plateaux, which form a southern continuation of the Pasto uplands. Tu lean, 

 guardian of the frontier near the Colombian Ipiales, owes its importance to its 

 trade with the neighbouring republic. In this respect it serves as the depot of 

 the larger city of Ibarra, founded at the end of the sixteenth century on a plain 

 whose waters flow northwards to the Rios Chota and Mira. The climate of Ibarra 

 is much milder than that of Tulcan, thanks to its considerably lower altitude 

 (13,200 and 15,830 feet respectively). 



Ibarra lies in the heart of the historical region, and near it is shown the site 

 of the ancient Caranqui, where stood a temple of the sun and a convent of vestals, 

 and where was born Atahuallpa, done to death by Pizarro. The plain of Hatun- 

 Taqui (the " Great Drum "), recalling the battle in which the Inca, Huayna-Capac, 

 overcame the Caranqui Indians, slopes towards the deep, land-locked basin of 

 Yaguar-Cocha (" Lake of Blood "), where the victor caused thousands — the legends 

 say, " forty thousand " — of the vanquished to be butchered, dyeing crimson the 

 vast sheet of water some ten miles in circumference. Over these plains are scat- 

 tered hundreds of tolas (sepulchral mounds), from which the treasure-seekers have 

 recovered many curious archaeological objects. 



Lying at the base of Imbabura, Ibarra was the scene of a frightful disaster 

 in 1868, when nearly all its buildings were overthrown in a few seconds, bui-ying 

 3,000 persons beneath the débris. The picturesque ruins of churches and convents 

 are still seen, more beautiful in their drapery of flowers and verdure than when 

 they left the builder's hands. Ofavalo, lying south of the valley on the northern 

 slopes of Yana-Urcu, suffered even more than Ibarra, losing nearly the whole of 

 its 6,000 inhabitants. 



