274 THE ROAD TO BOLIVIA 



of the city or the stairway of the hotel, and are compelled to stop 

 every few moments to recover your l>reath. There are sharp pains 

 in thelunj;s,a tlrowsiness ahout the head and eye's, and when 3'ou lie 

 down to sleep at night your heart will thump against your ribs like 

 a pile-driver. 



Tlie temperature reaches 80 at noonday and falls to 24 degrees at 

 night in winter. During the sunnner months the extremes are almost 

 the same. The lowest record for 1899 was 19 degrees above zero. 

 The maximum was 84. The temperature often varies 50 degrees in 

 24 hours. The extremes are less inside the walls of the houses, which 

 are so thick that the heat does not penetrate them. It always seems- 

 colder indoors than out, and, as there is no way of warming tlie houses 

 by stoves or furnaces or firej)laces, it is very uncomfortal)le. We lit 

 all the lamps we could get, regardless of the extravagance, for the 

 hotel-keeper charged. GO cents a night extra for each of those luxuries 

 and 25 cents for candles. \Ve ])ut on overcoats and hats, wrapped 

 our legs in fur roljes. and huddled around a center table, trying to be 

 amiable and happ}^ 'out it was no use. I'he only warm place was 

 the bed between the blankets. There is only one stove in La Paz, 

 and that warms the office of the American legation. Mr Bridgman^ 

 our minisier, brought it from New Jersey and had a ton of coal 

 shipped from Australia through the railway })eople at Arequipa. 



The natives are short, stocky fellows, beardless and broad-shoul- 

 dered, with great })owers of endurance and a courage and stoicism 

 similar to that of the North American Indian. Their ancestors 

 formed a part of the Inca Empire, having been subjugated by the 

 Peruvians 200 or 800 years before the Spanish invasion. Their food 

 consists chief! 3' of beans, dried peas, parched corn, dried potatoes, and 

 cocoa, Avhile they chew coca constantb'. The coca habit among the 

 Bolivians is as general as the opium habit with the Chinese or smok- 

 ing among the Irish. 



A ver}' interesting character frequently met with in the Andes is 

 the Gilldgwn/dor Indian doctor, as he is familiarly known. You find 

 him everywhere — resting upon the benches of the plazas in the city, 

 tramping over the mountain trails, sunning himself against the wall 

 of a cal)in by tiie railway station, drinking chica in the market place, 

 inspecting cattle in the corral of the hacienda, and curing the sick per- 

 sons in their mud huts. You find him in the railway cars and among 

 the deck passengers on the coast steamers, where he pays his way V)}^ 

 practicing his profession. With no wardrobe V)Ut the clothes upon 



