258 TRAVELS AMONGST THE GREAT ANDES, chap. xiv. 



So we went to Imbabura/ gradually acquiring things in stone 

 as we rode along - — accosting every person and enquiring at all the 

 houses — sometimes spying them hanging as ornaments or charms 

 around the necks of Indian women,^ or used as weights by weavers 



on their looms, or as toys 

 by children. Verity was a 

 tolerably efficient assistant, 

 and I found a more acute 

 one presently at Otovalo in 

 the person of the Yankee 

 Jew who had anathema- 

 tized the salt fish on Good 

 Friday ; and succeeded in 

 enlisting the sympathies of 

 several other persons who 

 were not insensible to the 

 value of the Almighty 

 Dollar. 



Time was becoming 

 precious, for this north- 

 ern journey had occupied 

 longer than was intended ; 

 and it was larranged that 

 Cotocachi should be dis- 

 posed of first, and that I 

 should pursue my quest 

 for antiquities with Verity and Cevallos, whilst the Carrels 

 returned southwards to make another attempt to ascend Illiniza. 

 At Otovalo we were informed that our mountain was unapproach- 



1 Imbabura is bounded on the north b}' Colombia, and on the west, east, and 

 south by tlie Provinces of Esmeraldas, Oriente, and Pichincha. It is divided into 

 four cantons, Tulcan, Ibarra, Cotocachi and Otovalo, which are subdivided into 

 twenty-nine parishes. Ibarra is the chief town. The mountain called Imbabura 

 occupies a large part of the Province. 



2 See the illustration on page 237. 



