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time, the calabafh is filled with boiling water, and they 
drink the liquor through a pipe fixed in the calabafh. 
It is alfo ufual to fqueeze into the liquor a fmall quantity 
of the juice of lemons or Seville oranges, mixed with 
fome perfumes from odoriferous flowers. This is their 
ufual drink in the morning faffing, and many ufe it alfo 
at their evening regale. The manner of dynkingit ap¬ 
pears very indelicate, the whole company taking it fuc- 
ceflively through the fame pipe, it being carried feveral 
times round the company till all are fatisfied. This 
among the Creoles is the higheft enjoyment: fo that, 
when they travel, they never fail to carry with them a 
fufficient quantity of it, and till they have taken their 
dofe of mate they never eat. 
The vice of gaming is here carried to an extravagant 
height, to the ruin of many familes, fome lofing their 
flocks in trade, others the very clothes from their backs, 
and afterward thofe belonging to their wives, which they 
hazard, flimulated by the hope of recovering their own. 
The common people, the Indians, and even the domef- 
tics, are greatly addifiled to dealing. The Meftizos, 
though arrant cowards, do not want audacity in this way; 
for, though they will not venture to attack any one in 
the ftreet, it is a common praflice to fnatch off a perfon’s 
hat, and immediately feek their fafety in flight. This 
acquifition is fometimes of cojifiderable value; the hats 
worn by perfons of rank, and even by the wealthy citizens 
when dreffed, being of white beaver, worth fifteen dollars, 
befides the hatband of gold or filver lace, faftened with a 
gold buckle let with diamonds or emeralds. Robberies 
on the highway are feldom heard of. 
The fumptuous manner of performing the laft offices 
for the dead, demonftrates how far the power of habit is 
capable of prevailing over reafon and prudence ; for their 
oftentation is fo great in this particular, that many 
families of credit are ruined by prepofteroufly endeavour¬ 
ing to excel others ; and the people here may be faid to 
toil and l'cheme to lay up wealth, to enable their fuc- 
ceffors to lavifh honours upon a body infenfible of all 
pageantry. 
Their (loth is fo great, that hardly any thing can 
induce them to work. Whatever therefore is neceflary 
to be done isjUft to the Indian women, who are much more 
active; they fpin and make the half-ffiirts and drawers 
which form the only apparel of their hulbands; they 
cook the provifions, grind barley, and brew the beer 
called cliiclia; while the hufband fits fquatting on his hams, 
the ufual polture of the Indians, looking at his bufy 
wife. They are indeed an inftance of that ftupidity in 
which it is in the power of tyranny to plunge men. 
They are fallen into a liftlels and ur.iverfal indifference. 
The riches which their country hath offered them, do 
not tempt them; luxury, to which nature invites them, 
has no attraction for them. They are even infenfible to 
honours. They are whatever one pleafes, without any 
ill-humour or choice, caciques or matayos, the objefls of 
diftinftion, or of public derifion. They have loft all their 
paffions. That of fear itfelf has often no effeCt on them, 
through the little attachment they have to life. Indo¬ 
lence is their predominant habit. “I am not hungry,” 
they fay to the perfon who would pay them for their 
labour. They are lively only in parties of pleafure, 
rejoicings, entertainments, and efpecially dancing; but 
in all thefe the liquor muft circulate brifkly, and 
they continue drinking till they are entirely deprived 
both of fenfe and motion. 
The chicha is a liquor made from maize by the following 
procefs. The maize, after being foaked in water till it 
begins to grow, is dried in the fun, then parched a little, 
and at laft ground. The flour, after it has been well 
kneaded, is put with water into a large veffel, and left 
for two or three days to ferment. Its tafte is nearly that 
of the moft indifferent kind of cider. It is a refrefliing, 
nourifhing, and aperitive, liquor; but it will not keep 
Vol, XIX. No. 1341. 
R U. 
above a week without turning four. This, therefore, is 
a reafon for not fuffering the liquor to remain long in 
the calk when once it is tapped. But it is remarkable 
that the Indian women, whether maids or married, and 
young men before they are of an age to contraft matri¬ 
mony, are never guilty of excefs in this way; it being a 
maxim among them, that drunkennefs is the privilege of 
none but mailers of families, who, when they are unable 
to take care of thernfelves, have others to take care of 
them. 
The agricultural produflions of Peru are at this time 
barely fufficient for the fubfiftence of its inhabitants. In 
the interior, corn is grown to feed the population; but 
on the coaft the fupply has been in a great meafure drawn 
from Chili. Sugar, cocoa, coffee, rice, maize, and the 
various fruits, fuffice for the confumption ; but there is 
no furplus, nor any ftimulus to produce it, lince in all 
the countries to which the Peruvians can have accefs the 
markets can be as well, if not better, fupplied from their 
own foils. Nearly as much wine is produced as is 
needed, though fome is imported from Chili. Oil,brandy, 
and rum, are made. The former is, however, generally 
rancid, from the olives being fuffered to become too ripe 
before they are expreffed. The fpirituous liquors are 
ftrong, fiery, and impure, being diddled in the rudeft 
manner. The various kinds of capficums are cultivated 
with more attention and /kill than any other plants; and, 
dreffed in various ways with garlic, form the moll im¬ 
portant article of food to the greater portion of the in¬ 
habitants. As a fubftitute for drink, the Indians make 
ufe of the leaf of a very pungent plant called coca. A 
fmall portion of quick lime is wrapped up in it and car¬ 
ried in the mouth. The pungent qualities of thefe two 
fubftances excite a moft abundant flow of faliva, and 
ferve to allay the thirft of thofe who travel over the moun¬ 
tains, or the vail plains offand, where, for days in fuccef- 
fion, no water can be obtained. The natives are fo much 
attached to this mode of allaying thirft, and have fuch 
confidence in the general falubrious effeft of the plant, 
that they will not commence the labours of mining till 
they are fatisfied that their employers have in ltore a 
quantity fufficient for their ufe. 
The demand for animal food is but fmall, and hence 
but little attention has been paid to the breeding, and 
none to the fattening, of cattle. Neither cows nor 
flieep are numerous: what are found in the country are 
the progeny of thofe brought originally from Europe. 
In the mountainous diftridts, between Guamanga and 
Cufco, both butter and cheefe are made; but in the 
lower country, oil is the univerfal fubftitute for the 
former. Pigs are bred in great numbers in the more 
hilly diftridls. The whole coaft is well ftored with filh 
of every kind. The natives of the Indian villages on 
the ftiore are very dexterous in catching them; and with 
the addition of capficum and garlic, they form the chief 
part of their fubfiftence. 
The manufactures of Peru are inconfiderable, and 
confift chiefly of thofe homely articles which are required 
by the poorer claffes of the community. On the high 
land, where warm clothing is neceflary, the want is 
chiefly fupplied by a fpecies of long-wooled baize, made 
from the fleeces of the aboriginal flieep, and in fome 
inftances from the wool of flieep of the European breed. 
In the valleys, and 011 the coaft, where the heat forbids 
the ufe of woollens, cotton cloths are made; but of a 
very inferior texture, from their having yet been no gins 
introduced, which effectually clear the cotton wool from 
the feeds of the plant. In dyeing the cloths, whether of 
woollen or cotton, the natives make ufe of plants that 
are fcarcely known in Europe, or at leaft have not been 
applied to the fame purpofe. They have a root called 
rdibvn, refembling madder, but with a fmaller leaf, an 
infufion of which dyes a good red. A plant called poquel, 
a kind of female fouthernwood, with green checquereo 
9 G leaves. 
