PARAC. 



49 



at. They live in poverty and filth, but seem happy enough. We saw 

 the women winnowing the beans (which were gathered dry from the 

 plant) by collecting them in pans made of large gourds, and flinging 

 them into the air ; and also sifting flour, which comes from the other 

 side of the Cordillera, about Jauxa. The costume of the Serrana women 

 is different from that of the women of the coast. It consists of a very 

 narrow skirt, and a body of coarse woollen cloth, generally blue, which 

 comes from Lima, and is belted around the waist with a broad-figured 

 woollen belt, woven by themselves. A woollen apron, with a figured 

 border, is worn on the left side, hanging from the right shoulder by a 

 strap ; and in the cold of the morning and evening the shoulders are 

 covered with a thick, colored blanket, reaching to the hips. A high, 

 broad-brimmed straw-hat, with shoes of raw-hide, drawn with a string 

 around the ancle, and no stockings, complete the costume. These peo- 

 ple seem contented with what they have, and don't want money. It 

 was with great difficulty we could persuade them to sell us anything, 

 always denying that they had it. On our return from the mines at 

 Parac, (where Mr. Gibbon had been sick with chills and fever,) he could 

 not eat the chupe, which had, at first, been made with charqui, 

 or jerked beef, but which had now dwindled down to cheese and 

 potatoes. I made a speech to some curious loafers about the tent, in 

 which I appealed to their pride and patriotism, telling them that I 

 thought it strange that so large a town as San Mateo, belonging to so 

 famous a country as Peru, could not furnish a sick stranger, who could 

 eat nothing else, with a few eggs. Whereupon, a fellow went off and 

 brought us a dozen, though he had just sworn by the Pope that there 

 were no such things in the village. 



May 28. — Mr. Gibbon and I, guided by a boy, rode over to the 

 hacienda of San Jose de Parac, leaving Richards and Ijurra in charge 

 of the camp. The ride occupied about three hours, over the worst 

 roads, bordered by the highest cliffs and deepest ravines we had yet 

 seen. The earth here shows her giant skeleton bare : mountains, rather 

 than rocks, of granite, rear their gray heads to the skies; and our 

 proximity made these things more striking and sublime. We found, 

 on the sides of the hills, short grass and small clover, with some fine 

 cattle feeding; and, wherever the mountain afforded a level shelf, 

 abundance of fine potatoes, which the people were then gathering. 



I brought letters from Mr. Prevost to Don Torribio Malarin, the 

 superintendent of the mines, who received us kindly, and entertained 

 us with much hospitality. His house was comfortably heated with a 

 stove, and the chamber furnished with a large four-post bedstead, and 

 4 



