INHABITANTS OF BOLIVIA. 3G9 



After the arrival of the whites the Aymaras continued to decline so steadily 

 that fears were entertained of their total extinction. To judge from the innumer- 

 able remains of buildings and from the extensive burial-places in the vicinity of 

 Lake Titicaca, this basin, now so sparsely inhabited, must have formerly been a 

 thickly peopled region. But on this open plateau the inhabitants had no places of 

 refuge ; none could escape the " mining conscription " compelling them to join 

 the doomed gangs of workmen in the metalliferous galleries of Potosi, Oruro and 

 other places. The destruction of the race thus proceeded in a systematic and, so 

 to say, legalised manner. 



Then, at the time of Tupac Amaru's insurrection, those who still survived 

 eagerly joined the revolt, in the hope, if not of recovering their independence, 

 at least of bringing about a change of masters. The ensuing war, massacres, 

 famine and epidemics reduced the whole nation to a few wretched fragments. 

 But with the "War of Independence a revival took place, and at present the 

 Aymara nation may be estimated at about 1,000,000, including in this expression 

 all those who have already become more or less Hispanified.- It appears, however, 

 that in the case of unions with the whites the type of the Aymara mother is more 

 persistent than that of the Spanish father. After several successive generations 

 of such interminglings, the true Aymara always reappears under the disguise of 

 the national name, " Hispano-American." 



Although Christianity with its Spanish formulas has become the universal 

 cult, numerous ceremonies of national origin are still associated with the new 

 religion. Neither peasant nor pastor will drink a glass of brandy without raising 

 his hat and making a libation of a few drops to the spirits of the mountain. In 

 many habitations the fossil remains of the huge pre-historic animals — mastodons, 

 megatheriums, glyptodons — are set up as household gods. 



Like the Semites of former ages, all the present Indian inhabitants of the Sierra 

 still preserve the worship of the "high places." Every mountain-top terminates 

 iu a large cairn or heap of stones, raised by the hands of passing wayfarers. 

 Formerly, all packmen climbing a steep slope were required, on reaching the 

 summit, to offer to the god Pachacamac a thanksgiving offering of the first object 

 their eyes lighted upon, and as this was usually a stone, tlie heap gradually rose 

 higher and higher. At the same time they repeatedly uttered an invocation, of 

 which the burden was the yvovà Apachecta. Thus it happens that this term — under 

 its Spanish form, apacheta — is now universally applied both to the cairns them- 

 selves and to the heights on which they stand. On the elevated plateaux of the 

 Puna district the shepherds fancy that on Good Friday they can commit all 

 imaginable crimes, except murder, without any fear of punishment, because God 

 having died on that day and remained dead the two following days. He knows 

 nothing of what has happened when He does rise.* 



Like Quichua, the Aymara language is still generally current, and has even 

 invaded the towns. In La Paz, metropolis of Bolivia, the Spaniards, being nearly 

 all brought up by native nurses, and surrounded by native servants, speak the 



* David Forbes, Journal of the Ethnological Society, vol. ii. 

 25 



