THE GREAT CORDILLERA. 



131 



perhaps, as an act of kindness, and began to cry ; 

 and although the group around us were roar- 

 ing with laughter, the spectacles remained on her 

 nose all the time I was conversing with her. She 

 then took them off, and looking at them with great 

 pride and delight, put them into the bosom of her 

 gown. 



The saddling of the mules had taken up so much 

 time that the sun had nearly set. It was still op- 

 pressively hot; however, the siesta, which with 

 eating, Sfc.^ is in Mendoza an operation of six hours, 

 was over, and the people were standing at their 

 doors to see us pass ; but as we went by the Almeida 

 road, we soon got out of the town. In the stream 

 which runs along the row of poplars which shade 

 this Almeida, or public walk, the people were bath- 

 ing as usual, without any dresses, and apparently 

 regardless of each other. The young called out 

 to us, and many jokes were taken and given. 



After passing the long Almeida, the road, for 

 about two leagues, passes through a country artifi- 

 cially irrigated from the Rio de Mendoza, and its 

 luxuriance and fertility are quite extraordinary. 

 The brown mud walls which bound the road were 



