Travels in Peru, on the Coast, in the Sierra, Across the Cordilleras and the Andes, into the Primeval Forests

by Johann Jakob von Tschudi

The Serranos are a very sociable people. In the towns they keep up a continual round of evening parties, in which singing and dancing are favorite amusements; but on these occasions they indulge in brandy-drinking to a terrible excess. As soon as a party is assembled, bottles and glasses are introduced, and each individual, ladies as well as gentlemen, drinks to the health of the company. For a party of thirty or more persons, not more than three or four glasses are brought in, so that one glass is passed repeatedly from hand to hand, and from mouth to mouth. The quantity of brandy drunk at one of the evening parties called in the Sierra Jaranas, is almost incredible. According to my observation, I should say that a bottle to each individual, ladies included, is a fair average estimate, the bottles being of the size of those used in Europe for claret. In the year 1839, whilst I was residing for a time in one of the largest towns of the Sierra, a ball was given in honor of the Chilian General Bulnes; on that occasion the brandy flowed in such quantities, that, when morning came, some members of the company were found lying on the floor of the ball-room in a state of intoxication. These facts naturally create an impression very unfavorable to the inhabitants of the Sierra; but a due allowance must be made for the want of education and the force of habit on the part of those who fall into these excesses. These people possess so many excellent moral qualities, that it would be unjust to condemn them solely on account of these orgies. The Serrano is far from being addicted to habitual drunkenness, notwithstanding his intemperate use of strong drinks amidst the excitement of company.

But if the vice of excessive drinking be occasionally indulged in among the better class of people of the Sierra, it is much more frequent among the Indian inhabitants. Every one of their often-recurring festivals is celebrated by a drinking bout, at which enormous quantities of brandy and chicha are consumed. In some districts of the Sierra the chicha is prepared in a peculiar and very disgusting manner by the Indians. Instead of crushing the jora (dried maize-grain) between two stones, which is the usual method, the Indians bruise it with their teeth. For this purpose a group of men and women range themselves in a circle round a heap of jora; each gathers up a handful, chews it, and then ejects it from the mouth into a vessel allotted for its reception. This mass, after being boiled in water, and left to ferment, is the much admired chicha mascada (that is to say, chewed chicha), the flavor of which is said to surpass that of the same beverage made in any other way. But they who have been eye-witnesses of the disgusting process, and who bear in mind various other preparations of Indian cookery in which the teeth perform a part, require some fortitude ere they yield to the pressing invitation of the hospitable Serrano, and taste the proffered nectar.

When it is wished to make the chicha particularly strong and well flavored, it is poured into an earthen jar along with several pounds of beef. This jar is made perfectly air-tight, and buried several feet deep in the ground, where it is left for the space of several years. On the birth of a child it is customary to bury a botija full of chicha, which, on the marriage of the same child, is opened and drunk. This chicha has a very agreeable flavor, but is so exceedingly potent, that a single glass of it is sufficient to intoxicate a practised chicha-drinker, or, as they say in the country, a chichero.

Every village in the Sierra has its own tutelary saint, whose festival is celebrated with great solemnity. Bull-fights and dances constitute the principal diversions on these occasions. These dances are relics of the Raymí or monthly dances, by which the Incas used to mark the divisions of time; and they are among the most interesting customs peculiar to these parts of Peru. The dancers wear dresses similar to those worn by the ancient Peruvians when they took part in the Raymí. Their faces and arms are painted in various colors, and they wear feather caps and feather ponchos. They have bracelets and anklets, and they are armed with clubs, wooden swords, and bows and arrows. Their music, too, is also similar to that of their forefathers. Their instruments consist of a sort of pipe or flute made of reed, and a drum composed simply of a hoop with a skin stretched upon it. To the inharmonious sound of these instruments, accompanying monotonous Quichua songs, the dances commence with those solemn movements with which the Incas used to worship the sun: they then suddenly assume a more joyous character, and at last change to the wild war-dance, in which the mimic contest, stimulated by copious libations of chicha, frequently ends in a real fight. In the larger towns, where the Mestizo portion of the population predominates, these dances are discouraged, and in course of time they will probably be entirely discontinued, though they are scrupulously adhered to by the Indians.

On festival days, bull-fights constitute the most favorite popular diversion. In the Sierra this barbarous sport is conducted with even more recklessness and cruelty than in the Corridas of Lima. Every occasion on which an entertainment of this sort takes place is attended with loss of life, and sometimes the sacrifice both of men and horses is very considerable. During my residence in Jauja, fourteen Indians and nineteen horses were killed or seriously wounded in a bull-fight; yet catastrophes of this kind appear to make no impression on the people.

Some of the church festivals are celebrated by the Indians of the Sierra, in a manner which imparts a peculiar coloring to the religious solemnities. In the midnight mass on Christmas Eve, they imitate in the churches the sounds made by various animals. The singing of birds, the crowing of cocks, the braying of asses, the bleating of sheep, &c., are simulated so perfectly, that a stranger is inclined to believe that the animals have assembled in the temple to participate in the solemnity. At the termination of the mass, troops of women perambulate the streets, during the remainder of the night. Their long black hair flows loosely over their bare shoulders; and in their hands they carry poles with long fluttering strips of paper fixed to the ends of them. They occasionally dance and sing peculiarly beautiful melodies, accompanied by a harp, a fiddle, and a flute; and they mark the measure of the music by the movement of their poles.

The celebration of Christmas-day is marked by the appearance of what are termed the Negritos. These are Indians, with their faces concealed by hideous negro masks. Their dress consists of a loose red robe, richly wrought with gold and silver thread, white pantaloons, and their hats are adorned with waving black feathers. In their hands they carry gourd bottles, painted in various gay colors, and containing dried seeds. Whilst they sing, the Negritos shake these gourds, and mark the time by the rattling of the dried seeds. They perform the dances of the Guinea negroes, and imitate the attitudes and language of a race which they hold in abhorrence and contempt. For the space of three days and nights these negritos parade the streets, entering the houses and demanding chicha and brandy, with which the inhabitants are glad to supply them, to avoid violence and insult.

On New Year's Day other groups of mummers, called Corcobados, perambulate the streets. They are enveloped in cloaks of coarse grey woollen cloth, their head-gear consists of an old vicuña hat, with a horse's tail dangling behind. Their features are disguised by ludicrous masks with long beards; and, bestriding long sticks or poles, they move about accompanied by burlesque music. Every remarkable incident that has occurred in the families of the town during the course of the year, is made the subject of a song in the Quichua language; and these songs are sung in the streets by the Corcobados. Matrimonial quarrels are favorite subjects, and are always painted with high comic effect in these satirical songs. The Corcobados go about for two days; and they usually wind up their performances by drinking and fighting. When two groups of these Corcobados meet together, and the one party assails with ridicule anything which the other is disposed to defend, a terrible affray usually ensues, and the sticks which have served as hobby-horses, are converted into weapons of attack.

In order to facilitate the conversion of the idolatrous Indians, the Spanish monks who accompanied Pizarro's army, sought to render the Christian religion as attractive as possible in the eyes of the heathen aborigines of Peru. With this view they conceived the idea of dramatizing certain scenes in the life of Christ, and having them represented in the churches. In the larger towns these performances have long since been discontinued, but they are still kept up in most of the villages of the Sierra; indeed the efforts made by enlightened ecclesiastics for their suppression, have been met with violent opposition on the part of the Indians.

On Palm Sunday, an image of the Saviour seated on an ass is paraded about the principal streets of the town or village. The Indians strew twigs of palm over the animal, and contend one with another for the honor of throwing their ponchos down on the ground, in order that the ass may walk over them. The animal employed in this ceremony is, when very young, singled out for the purpose, and is never suffered to carry any burthen save the holy image. He is fed by the people, and at every door at which he stops, the inmates of the house pamper him up with the best fodder they can procure. The ass is looked upon as something almost sacred, and is never named by any other appellation than the Burro de Nuestro Señor (our Lord's ass). In some villages I have seen these animals so fat that they were scarcely able to walk.