NOTICES OF PERU. 



301 



in by high mud walls, enclosing fruit and flower gardens, 

 which fill the soft air with their odors. Here moved cale- . 

 «as, filled with ladies and children gaily dressed, and their 

 heads decked with amancaes and dahlias ; ladies on horseback, 

 managing their spirited animals in a most masterly style; ca- 

 valiers and officers in gay dress and gorgeous uniforms; ne- 

 gresses in jaunty calico gowns, mounted on donkeys; negroes 

 on foot, or mounted on sorry asses or mules, all crowding to 

 the scene of festivity. The whole living stream was animated 

 by the mutual smiles and salutations of the dames and cava- 

 liers, the hearty laugh of the less refined, and the coarse joke 

 and noisy hilarity of the plebeian mob. When we reached the 

 vale, we found the soil bare, save where the hill sides were 

 sprinkled with yellow patches of the amancaes. Booths were 

 erected of mats in different parts of the vale, and surrounded 

 by various groups, enjoying themselves in dancing and singing 

 to the sound of harps and guitars. Some of the ladies on horse- 

 back, moving from rancho to rancho, attracted our attention ; 

 they wore the Manila hat, white pantalets, and poncho, as have 

 already been described. They seemed to delight in their skill 

 in horsemanship, for a practised eye might detect them rein- 

 ing in their animals, while at the same time the spur was 

 pressed quietly into their sides, causing them to prance and 

 curvet over the ground. The cavaliers were no less dexterous 

 in the management of their steeds, as they squired the ladies 

 with " heedful haste," and assisted them to the various refresh- 

 ments offered at the ranchos. 



In one rancho were two Africans, dancing the " sama cueca" 

 to the music of a rude harp, accompanied by the nasal voices 

 of two negresses jauntily dressed, and the hair frizzed out and 

 ornamented with flowers. One was seated on the ground, 

 beating on the body of the instrument in time with her palms. 

 The dancer was dressed in white, flounced to the knee, with 

 a bright colored cotton shawl tied round the hips, so as to 

 shorten the gown very considerably. The arms were bare and 

 shining in pure black; in one hand she held a white handker- 

 chief, which was ever and anon flourished in the air, while 

 the other sustained her dress behind. Her hair, like that of 



