[73] The date of Salcedo's death was May, 1669.
[74] Ninacaca is 12,853 feet, and Carhuamayo 13,087 feet above the sea level.
[75] It is also called the Laguna de Reyes, and the Laguna de Junin.
CHAPTER XIII.
The Sierra—Its Climate and Productions—Inhabitants—Trade—Eggs circulated as money—Mestizos in the Sierra—Their Idleness and Love of Gaming and Betting—Agriculture—The Quinua Plant, a substitute for Potatoes—Growth of Vegetables and Fruits in the Sierra—Rural Festivals at the Seasons of Sowing and Reaping—Skill of the Indians in various Handicrafts—Excess of Brandy-Drinking—Chicha—Disgusting mode of making it—Festivals of Saints—Dances and Bull-Fights—Celebration of Christmas-Day, New-Year's Day, Palm Sunday, and Good Friday—Contributions levied on the Indians—Tardy and Irregular Transmission of Letters—Trade in Mules—General Style of Building in the Towns and Villages of the Sierra—Ceja de la Montaña.
The Peruvian highlands, or level heights, described in a previous chapter under the designation of the Puna, are intersected by numerous valleys situated several thousand feet lower than the level heights, from which they totally differ in character and aspect. These valleys are called the Sierra. The inhabitants of Lima usually comprehend under the term Sierra, the whole interior of Peru, and every Indian who is not an inhabitant of the coast, or of the forest regions, is called by them a Serrano. But strictly speaking, the Sierra includes only the valleys between the Cordillera and the Andes, and I shall here use the term in its more limited and proper sense.
In the Sierra there are only two seasons throughout the year. The winter or rainy season commences in October; but the rains are neither so heavy nor so continuous as in the forest districts. The falls of rain seldom last longer than two or three days in succession. Storms of thunder and lightning are very frequent in the Sierra; they are not accompanied by snow as in the Puna, but often by hail. The thermometer never falls below +4° R., and during the daytime it is on the average at +11° R. In April the summer season sets in, bringing with it an uninterrupted succession of warm bright days. The nights in summer are colder than in winter. In a summer night the thermometer will sometimes fall below freezing point, and the cold is often very severe. About noon the heat is oppressive, though the average heat of the day does not exceed 13, 9° R. During the summer season the horizon is frequently obscured by heavy dark clouds, which seldom break over the valleys, but continue frowning over the hills. The natives call these portentous clouds Misti Manchari (terror of the whites),[76] because the inhabitants of the coast always regard them as indicative of stormy weather.
The climate of the Sierra favors the natural fruitfulness of the soil, which richly repays the labor of the husbandman; but plants, peculiar to the warm tropical regions, do not thrive well here. Prior to the European emigration to Peru, only maize, quinua (Chenopodium Quinoa, L.), and a few tuberous roots were grown in the Sierra; but since the Spanish conquest, the European cereals, lucerne, and various kinds of vegetables are cultivated with perfect success. But the eye of the traveller seeks in vain for those stately forests which clothe the mountainous districts of Europe; the barren acclivities afford nurture only for the agave-tree, and some very large species of cactus. Groups of willow trees (Salix Humboldtii), which attain the height of about twenty or twenty-five feet, together with the quinua-tree, form here and there little thickets on the banks of rivers.