98 TRAVELS AMONGST THE GREAT ANDES, chap. iv. 



(9140), a place with perhaps 5000 inhabitants, built on rather 

 flat ground, dangerously near to a stream that is liable to sudden 

 swellings when Cotopaxi is in eruption. AYe went by advice to the 

 little hotel of Pompeyo Baquero, — the best kept house we entered 

 in Ecuador. Everything was clean, and the place was free from 

 fleas, a fact which was the more welcome because Ambato was 

 densely populated with these wild animals. In the apartments 

 we had just quitted there w^ere more fleas per square yard than 

 I have known anywhere. When rays of sunlight streamed in 

 through the windows, a sort of haze was seen extending about a 

 foot above the floor, caused by myriads of them leaping to and fro. 



The favourable impression which was created by the pro- 

 priety of Baquero's hotel was utterly destroyed by what we saw 

 upon leaving this town. At the door of every house on the 

 sunny side of the street leading to the bridge, the ladies of 

 Latacunga were basking in the warmth. Mothers had their 

 children reposing in their laps, and daughters seemed to be 

 caressing their parents. To the non-observant they would have 

 formed sweet pictures of parental and filial affection. A glance 

 was enough to see that all this assemblage were engaged in eating 

 the vermin which they picked out of each other's hair. Accord- 

 ing to the old historians, this habit was established in the country 

 before the Spanish conquest. It is practised now by the hybrid 

 Ecuadorian race as much as by the pure Indians. There were 

 more than two dozen groups on one side of this single street 

 engaged in this revolting occupation, which they carried on with- 

 out shame in the most public manner. Though I shook the 

 dust of this town off m}^ feet, it was impossible to forget the 

 Ladies of Latacunga, for the same disgusting sight was forced 

 upon our attention throughout the whole of the interior. 



Upon leaving the town, under the guidance of Mr. Perring, 

 we took the road on the right bank (western side) of the Cutuchi. 

 This part of the Moreno road was erased during the eruptions of 

 Cotopaxi in 1877, and no doubt it will be swept away again. 



