144 ALEXANDER AGASSIZ 



to be indispensable, and as for the luxuries, even the 

 smallest which are found everywhere in all the decent 

 homes, there is no trace of them. As to their manners 

 and customs, they will not bear description, and as long 

 as the present style continues there is but little hope of 

 being able to introduce anything like reform. Imagine 

 at a dinner party eating your pie with a knife (in a 

 crack house of Puno), and at the same time, although 

 there were napkins, the majority of the people present, 

 all high functionaries, wiped their mouths and hands on 

 the edge of the tablecloth, including the lady of the 

 house! The women, I must say, all stand on a very 

 much lower level than the men. They know absolutely 

 nothing and are dirty, slovenly, in fact seem to be a sort 

 of head servant in their husbands' houses. 



I found when I got to Puno that I must give up. my 

 proposed visit to Cuzco ; it is too early in the season and 

 the roads, to judge from a few which I have passed 

 over, are bad even for Peru, which is saying a good deal. 

 I am very sorry for this, as my trip on Lake Titicaca 

 has excited my appetite very much regarding antiquities. 

 In fact this trip seems to have opened my eyes in a great 

 many directions, and I have learned a great deal of special- 

 ties which formerly interested me but little. 



I commenced this letter at Puno, but I am now writ- 

 ing from a place called Juli, about sixty miles south of 

 Puno on the Lake Shore; here I met Garman and his 

 schooner quietly at anchor. He has done very well in 

 way of collections, and if I can only get all this safely 

 home I shall have plenty to occupy me in writing up 

 this trip. I am on board the Yavari, a small steamer of 

 about eighty tons, which goes entirely round the Lake 

 and arms and I have the steamer literally at my disposal, 



