t 



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CHAP. XVI. A NIGHT AT PENIPE. 309 



sleep outside the house on a plank form — a thing with length and 

 no breadth ; and finding that this, through being near the ground, 

 allowed the curs of Penipe to browse on my boots, shifted in the 

 course of the night to the top of a table (which had breadth but 

 no length), and curled myself up, as printers might say, into the 

 shape of C, grotesque. 



Little refreshed by slumber, we returned across the rickety 

 bridge to Eiobamba ; without incident except a furious stampede 

 of our animals, who took this way of shewing that they had 

 benefited by their sojourn in the forest. As a general rule, 

 Ecuadorian mules display no eagerness to get either onward or 

 upward, and upon flat, open ground, where there is plenty of room, 

 each one seems to wish to be last ; while on approaching narrow 

 places, and ruts in greasy earth where only one can pass at a time, 

 suddenly galvanized into life, they dash forward with outstretched 

 necks, racing to get through first ; and deaf to command, persua- 

 sion or entreaty outstrip the arrieros, unheeding their shouts and 

 ^^lado's,^^ and rush at headlong speed, cannoning each other and 

 dislodging their loads. Then arises Hullaballoo ! while the corners 

 of packing-cases are splintered and their sides stove in, to the 

 future dismay of consignor and consignee. After six months^ 

 experience of the manners and customs of the Ecuadorian mule, 

 one began to understand why glass was dear in Quito. 



