These regions, so favored by nature, have from the earliest period been the chosen dwelling-places of the Peruvians; and therefore in the Sierra, which, measured by its superficies, is not of very great extent, the population has increased more than in any other part of Peru. The valleys already contain numerous towns, villages, and hamlets, which would rise in importance, if they had greater facility of communication one with another. But they are surrounded on all sides by mountains, which can be crossed only by circuitous and dangerous routes. The few accessible pathways are alternately up rugged ascents, and down steep declivities; or winding through narrow ravines, nearly choked up by broken fragments of rock, they lead to the dreary and barren level heights.
The Serranos, or inhabitants of the Sierra, especially those who dwell in the smaller villages, are chiefly Indians. In the towns and larger villages, the mestizos are numerous. The whites are very thinly scattered over the Sierra; but many of the mestizos are very anxious to be thought white Creoles. A rich serrano, who bears in his features the stamp of his Indian descent, will frequently try to pass himself off to a foreigner for an old Spaniard. Here, even more than on the coast, the mestizo is ambitious to rank himself on a level with the white, whilst he affects to regard the Indian as an inferior being.
The few Spaniards who reside in the Sierra are men who have served in the Spanish army, and who, at the close of the war of independence, settled in that part of Peru. Many of them keep shops in the towns and villages, and others, by advantageous marriages, have become the possessors of haciendas. Those who have enriched themselves in this way are remarkable alike for ignorance and pride, and give themselves the most ludicrous airs of assumed dignity. The Creoles are the principal dealers in articles of European commerce. They journey to Lima twice or thrice a year to make their purchases, which consist in white and printed calicoes, woollen cloths, hard-wares, leather, soap, wax, and indigo. In the Sierra, indigo is a very considerable article of traffic: the Indians use a great quantity of it for dyeing their clothes; blue being their favorite color. Wax is also in great demand; for in the religious ceremonies, which are almost of daily occurrence, a vast quantity of tapers is consumed. The principal articles of traffic produced by the natives are woollen ponchos and blankets, unspun colored wool, saddle-cloths, stirrups and horseshoes. The last-named articles are purchased chiefly by the arrieros of the coast. It may seem strange that stores of horseshoes should be kept ready made; but so it is; for though in Europe we make the shoe to fit the hoof, yet in Peru it is the practice to cut the hoof to fit the shoe. On Yca brandy more money is expended than on every other article of trade combined. The quantity of that spirit annually transported to the Sierra exceeds belief. To see the Indians on Sundays and festival days thronging to the shops of the spirit dealers, with their jugs and bottles, one might fairly presume that more brandy is drunk in the Sierra in one day, than in many of the towns of Europe in a year. In some parts—for example, in the province of Jauja—hens' eggs are circulated as small coin, forty-eight or fifty being counted for a dollar. In the market-place and in the shops the Indians make most of their purchases with this brittle sort of money: one will give two or three eggs for brandy, another for indigo, and a third for cigars. These eggs are packed in boxes by the shop-keepers, and sent to Lima. From Jauja alone, several thousand loads of eggs are annually forwarded to the capital.
Most of the mestizos possess little estates (chacras), the produce of which, consisting of grain, vegetables and clover, is disposed of in the towns of the Sierra, or in the mining districts of the Puna. As the profits arising from the chacras usually suffice to provide their owners with a comfortable subsistence, the mestizos pass their lives in idleness and pleasure. They spend the chief portion of the day in the true Spanish style, gossiping in groups in the streets, and wrapped in their mantles. When the state of the weather does not admit of this sort of out-door lounging the time is passed in gaming or cock-fighting. This latter diversion is no less in favor in the Sierra than in Lima. Such enormous bets are laid at these cock-fights, that the losses frequently entail ruin on persons of tolerably good fortune.
The agriculture of the Sierra is wholly consigned to the Indians, who either cultivate their own lands, or for very poor wages labor for the mestizos. In September, the ground is ploughed and prepared for sowing, which operation is performed in October, and the reaping takes place in April or May. By this means the seed is left in the ground throughout all the rainy season. In February violent frost frequently comes on during the night, by which the seed is so much injured that the harvest fails, and the scarcity occasions severe suffering and even famine. When the cold clear nights create apprehensions of damage to the seed, the people form themselves into processions, and go through the villages and towns imploring the mercy of Heaven. In the dead of the night it is no unusual thing to be aroused by the ringing of bells. The inhabitants then get up and hurry to church, where the solemn processions are formed. Penitents clothed in sackcloth go through the streets, scourging themselves; and the Indians, in their native language, utter prayers and offer up vows to Heaven. For the space of some hours an incessant movement and agitation pervade the streets, and when day begins to dawn the people return to their homes, trembling between hope and fear. The fate of the Indians, when their harvest fails them, is indeed truly miserable, for, abstemious as they are, they can scarcely procure wherewith to satisfy their hunger. In the year 1840, which was a period of scarcity, I saw the starving Indian children roaming about the fields, and eating the grass like cattle.
Maize is the species of grain most extensively cultivated in the Sierra: it is of excellent quality, though smaller than that grown on the coast. Wheat, though it thrives well, is cultivated only in a very limited quantity, and the bread made from it is exceedingly bad. The other species of European grain, barley excepted, are unknown to the Serranos. To compensate for the want of them, they have the quinua (Chenopodium Quinoa, L.), which is at once a nutritious, wholesome, and pleasant article of food. The leaves of this plant, before it attains full maturity, are eaten like spinach; but it is the seeds which are most generally used as food. They are prepared in a variety of ways, but most frequently boiled in milk or in broth, and sometimes cooked with cheese and Spanish pepper. The dried stems of the quinua are used as fuel. Experiments in the cultivation of this plant have been tried in some parts of Germany, and with considerable success. It would appear, however, that its flavor is not much liked; a circumstance rather surprising to the traveller who has tasted it in Peru, where it is regarded in the light of a delicacy. It were to be wished that the general cultivation of the quinua could be introduced throughout Europe; for during the prevalence of the potatoe disease this plant would be found of the greatest utility. It is a well-known fact that potatoes and tea, two articles now in such universal use, were not liked on their first introduction into Europe. The quinua plant, which yields a wholesome article of food, would thrive perfectly in our hemisphere, and, though in its hitherto limited trial it has not found favor, there is no reason to conclude that it may not at a future time become an object of general consumption.
Four kinds of tuberous plants are successfully cultivated in the Sierra; viz., the potatoe, the ulluco, the oca, and the mashua. Of potatoes there are several varieties, and all grow in perfection. The ulluco (Tropæolum tuberosum) is smaller than the potatoe, and is very various in its form, being either round, oblong, straight, or curved. The skin is thin, and of a reddish-yellow color, and the inside is green. When simply boiled in water it is insipid, but is very savory when cooked as a picante. The oca (Oxalis tuberosa) is an oval-shaped root; the skin pale red, and the inside white. It is watery, and has a sweetish taste; for which reason it is much liked by the Peruvians. The mashua is the root of a plant as yet unknown to botanists. It is cultivated and cooked in the same manner as those already described. In form, however, it differs from them all. It is of a flat pyramidal shape, and the lower end terminates in a fibrous point. It is watery, and insipid to the taste; but is nevertheless much eaten by the Serranos. As the mashua roots will not keep, they are not transported from the places in which they are grown, and, therefore, are not known in Lima. The Indians use the mashua as a medicine: they consider it an efficacious remedy in cases of dropsy, indigestion, and dysentery.
The vegetables and fruits of Europe thrive luxuriantly in the warm Sierra valleys; yet but few of them have been transplanted thither, and those few are but little esteemed. Some of the cabbage and salad species, together with onions, garlic, and several kinds of pulse, are all that are cultivated. It is remarkable that in these regions no indigenous fruit-trees are to be seen. The only fruit really belonging to the Sierra is the Tuna. In some of the sheltered ravines, or, as they are called, Quebradas, oranges, lemons, and granadillas flourish at the height of 10,000 feet above sea level. The fruits which have been transplanted from Europe are for the most part indifferent, as not the least care is bestowed on their cultivation. The effect of this neglect is particularly obvious in apples, pears, and damson-plums. Cherries and chestnuts are unknown in these parts; but on the other hand, peaches and apricots (duraznos) grow in amazing abundance, and many very fine species are found, especially in the southern provinces. Excursions to the duraznales (apricot gardens), in the months of April and May, to eat the ripe fruit fresh plucked from the trees, are among the most favorite recreations of the Serranos. Some of the Sierra districts are celebrated throughout Peru for their abundance of fruit. This luxuriance is particularly remarkable in several of the deep valleys, for instance, in Huanta; but, strictly speaking, these deep valleys partake less of the character of the Sierra than of the higher forest regions.
The periods of sowing and reaping are celebrated by the Indians with merry-making, a custom which has descended from the time of the Incas, when those periods corresponded with the two great divisions of the year. Even a scanty harvest, an event of frequent occurrence, occasions no interruption to these rustic festivals. Bands of music, consisting of trumpets, fiddles, and flutes, play whilst the corn is cut down, and during their work, the laborers freely regale themselves with chicha, huge barrels of which are placed for their unrestrained use. The consequence is, that they are almost continually intoxicated; and yet whilst in this state it is no unusual thing to see them dancing with heavy loads of sheaves on their heads. Their dinner is cooked in the fields, in large pots and kettles, and to partake of it they all sit down on the ground in rows, one behind another. The wheat and barley when cut are spread out in little heaps on the ground, and, instead of thrashing, the grain is pressed out of the ears by the tramping of horses, the animals being driven round and round in a circle. As soon as this process is ended, the agents of the Government and the priests make their appearance to claim the tithes.
In the larger villages and towns of the Sierra, the Indians frequently employ themselves in handicrafts, in some of which they attain a high degree of perfection, for they are not wanting either in talent or in mechanical dexterity. As goldsmiths they are remarkably skilful, and in this branch of industry they produce work which, for taste and exquisite finish, cannot be excelled in the capitals of Europe. The various kinds of vessels and figures of silver wire (filigranas), made by the cholos in Ayacucho, have always been favorite articles of ornament in Spain. The Indians of Jauja are very skilful in working iron, and the objects of their workmanship are much esteemed throughout Peru. Of leather also they make various things in very beautiful style; and saddle-cloths, bridles, &c., of their manufacture are much more elegant and infinitely cheaper than those made in Lima. In Cuzco and the adjacent provinces many of the Indians evince considerable talent in oil-painting. Their productions in this way are, of course, far from being master-pieces; but when we look on the paintings which decorate their churches, and reflect that the artists have been shut out from the advantages of education and study; and moreover, when we consider the coarse materials with which the pictures have been painted, it must be acknowledged that they indicate a degree of talent, which, if duly cultivated, would soar far above mediocrity. In Tarma and its neighborhood the natives weave an exquisitely fine description of woollen cloth. They make ponchos of vicuña wool, which sell for 100 or 120 dollars each, and which are equal to the finest European cloth. The beauty of these Indian textures is truly wonderful, considering the rude process of weaving practised by the natives. They work various colors, figures, and inscriptions in the cloth, and do all this with a rapidity which equals the operations of ordinary looms. The most valuable textures they weave are those produced from the wool of the vicuña and the alpaco. They likewise make very fine textures of cotton and silk. It is curious that the Indians of each province have some particular branch of industry to which they exclusively apply themselves, to the neglect of all others.