180 



MONKEY MEAT. 



enough to sleep, we were not able to do so. We mount very much 

 exhausted, while our animals stagger with the weight. 



The arrieros pile the baggage up in a heap at night, and cover it with 

 the pack-saddles. Our boxes were well covered with tarpaulins before 

 we left Cochabamba, and I had them lined and soldered inside with tin, 

 to be water-tight. We find this a good plan. No doubt we should 

 have been wanting' in provisions had our boxes leaked, for the rain ran 

 off the sides of the hill, flowing round the baggage. Travellers supply 

 themselves with biscuits baked hard, without salt, as it melts in this 

 moist climate and the bread spoils. We carried cheese, tea, sugar, rice, 

 cakes of chocolate, and sardines, with two biscuits a day, and what we 

 could gather with our gun in geese, turkeys, and monkeys. We worked 

 along much better than our poor animals. The article we found most 

 valuable was rice. A wild turkey, cut up and well boiled with rice, 

 seasoned with a small quantity of aje, a lump of Potosi salt scraped with 

 it, was most refreshing after a hard day's travel. The greatest favor to 

 a traveller met on the road in the forest, is to present him with a biscuit. 

 The patron who shares his bread with the men will always get through. 

 The arrieros generally carry a bag of roasted or parched corn. It is 

 amusing to see them luxurating on the hind leg of a ring-tailed monkey, 

 taken alternately with a grain of parched corn. They say the tail of the 

 monkey is the most delicate part when the hair is properly singed. If 

 our game gave out, and it became cold monkey or nothing, we opened 

 our box of cheese. Monkey meat keeps longer than any other in this 

 climate ; carried on the side of the baggage, it becomes tender during 

 the day by beating against the trees as the train passes along. Of the 

 skins the arrieros make pouches, in which they carry coca beans and 

 parched corn, suspended by the tail to a strap round the waist, with the 

 legs tied one to another, hair side out. This is thought ornamental, and 

 a greater protection from wet weather than the 'best tanned leather. 

 The arrieros are generally cheerful fellows, and are always anxious to 

 point out game, generally looking for turkeys, knowing that the four-leg 

 kind will fall to them alone. 



There is great trouble in getting a fire ; the dead wood is so much 

 soaked by rains that Jose has to inflate his cheeks till the tears run out 

 of his eyes. Every man carries a flint and steel with him. Arrieros 

 sleep soundly with their heads in the rain and feet in the ashes. 



On the evening of the 1th May, we reached the Espiritu Santo; follow- 

 ing it for some distance we came to a lonely house, situated in a beauti- 

 ful and romantic spot. Standing at the door, looking up the ravine, 

 through which a stream dashes, the great Andes appear in might, wrap- 



