358 THE VICUNA. 



were never repeated in the same quarter oftener than once in 

 four years, that time might be allowed for the waste occasioned 

 by them to be replenished. At the time appointed the whole 

 surrounding population — sometimes, it is said, amounting to 

 nearly ten thousand men — formed a circle round the area which 

 was to be hunted over. Armed with spears, they gradually 

 closed in, destroying the beasts of prey, and driving the 

 huanucus, vicunas, and deer towards the centre, where the 

 male deer and the huanucus were slaughtered. Their skins 

 were reserved for various useful manufactures ; and their flesh, 

 cut into thin slices, was distributed among the people, who con- 

 verted it into chasqui, or dried meat (constituting then, as it does 

 now, the principal animal food of the lower classes of Peru). 



The vicunas are hunted at the present day. A mem- 

 ber from each family of the Puna villages joins the hunting 

 party, forming altogether a band of about one hundred persons. 

 They carry poles with cordage. The poles are placed in the 

 ground, and united by ropes at about the height of two feet, 

 forming a circle of half a league in circumference, enclosing a 

 space called the chasqu. Coloured pieces of rag are attached 

 to the ropes, which are moved about by the wind. Some of the 

 hunters are on horseback, others on foot. Each man is armed 

 with the well-known bolas ; which consists of three balls of 

 load, two of whieh are heavy and one lighter, attached to a 

 long leathern thong knotted together at one extremity. The 

 hunter takes the lighter ball in his hand, and swings the other 

 two in a wide circle over his head. When at a distance of 

 fifteen or twenty paces from the animal, the lighter is let 

 loose, when the three fly in circles towards it, encompassing 

 it in their snake-like folds. Thus prepared, the hunters dis- 

 perse, forming a circle several miles in circumference, driving 



