284 TRAVELS AMONGST THE GREAT ANDES, chap. xiv. 



Somewhat elated by the success of the foray into Imbabura, we 

 set out from Otovalo on the 2nd of May, to cross Mojanda to 



THE CONTENTS OF A GRAVE. 



Quito ; intending to make the first day a short one, and to stop 

 for the night at the little village Malchingi/ The pottery was 

 carefully packed in straw, subdivided as much as possible ; and, as 

 there was little other luggage, our attention was almost solely 

 given to the safety of our treasures. 



condition of its bony tissue. How old, it is of course impossible to say, but there 

 is nothing in its condition to forbid the supposition that it was buried before the 

 time of the Spanish Conquest. It is, unfortunately, imperfect, the greater part of 

 the cranial vault of the right side being broken away, probably in exhumation, 

 as the fractures look recent, and the lower jaw and all the teeth are wanting. 

 There is, however, enough to shew that it belonged to a man beyond middle age, 

 and of considerable muscular development. The general ethnic characters are those 

 frequently' found in aboriginal American crania, though it is rather longer and 

 narrower (the cephalic index being 76"6), and the orbits are lower and the nose 

 wider than usual. On comparing it with a series of skulls of ancient Muiscas from 

 graves in the neighbourhood of Bogota in the Museum of the Royal College of 

 Surgeons, it is evidently of the same general type. Unlike most of the old skulls 

 from the locality near which it was found it presents no sign of artificial deformation 

 during infancy. 



1 There is a small inn at Malchingi, but between that place and Otovalo there 

 is not, I believe, a single house. The nearest habitation farther west is the 

 Hacienda of Alchipichi, a very large establishment, situated on the south-western 

 slopes of Mojanda, about 1400 feet above the bottom of the Quebrada of Guallabamba. 

 The descent to the bridge across the quebrada is exceedingly steep. 



