4 



THRESHING BARLEY. 



The girls spin wool and chat together, while the clogs follow lazily after. 

 If we pass close to the flock, and the sheep run back, these dogs make 

 a furious attack upon us, keeping between us and the flock. The tem- 

 perature of a spring of excellent water near the path was 48°. To the 

 southeast snow peaks stand up in full view. The day is warm and 

 pleasant. Here comes a cheerful party of ladies and gentlemen on 

 horseback. As we pass each other, the gentlemen take off their hats, 

 and the ladies look prettily under their white straw ones. Their figures 

 show to advantage in riding-dresses, and they manage and set their 

 horses well. The cool mountain air gives them a fresh color, which 

 contrasts well with gazelle-eyed beauty and long black hair. I thought 

 their dresses rather short, but a sight of the foot of^one of them, small 

 as it was, reminds one there is proof positive against the propriety of a 

 man's travelling through this world alone. 



Now we meet the market Indian driving asses loaded with potatoes, 

 corn, and saddles of mutton, to Tarma. I wanted some mutton for the 

 party, but Jose was positively refused by an old woman, who got out of 

 his way by twisting the tail of her donkey, who was disposed to come to 

 a stand and be relieved of his load. I was told Indians scarcely ever sell 

 except after they arrive in the plaza. I can account for it by the wo- 

 man's wanting to go to town, for Jose offered her more than the market 

 price. 



At the end of a thickly populated valley, which stretches off to the 

 southeast, we halted at an Indian hut for dinner. The wife was at 

 home with her children — fine, healthy-looking little ones. Boiled mut- 

 ton, potatoes, and eggs, with good wheat bread, were placed upon the 

 ground at the door. The children and dogs formed an outside circle 

 around us. After dinner the woman gave me an orange, which she 

 said came from the woods, pointing to the Andes, to the east of us. 

 Some of these Indians cross the range of mountains, and garden on the 

 eastern slopes for the markets, on these table lands — Puna — as the 

 Spaniards call the elevated flats. 



The husband was threshing barley with his neighbors. The grain is 

 separated from the straw by the tramping of oxen and horses. Over 

 the surface of this level valley there are numbers of such threshing parties. 

 The grain is cleared from the chaff by being poured from the top of a 

 man's head on a windy day. Many of them suffer with inflamed eyes, 

 and even lose them sometimes by a shift of wind, which blows the barley 

 beards into the eyes. 



Black cattle are numerous here, and at the foot of the mountains ; so 

 are white churches, which stand in the midst of a thick population of 



