on eggs, following at even distances, each moving with authority of a whole procession. If frightened, they huddle into a compact group, craning their long necks toward the center. Then they look you wistfully in the face for minutes at a time without moving. The halter of the leader is embroidered, and small streamers flutter from it. Most of the llamas have tassels in their ears, or little pendants or bells. Thus they file across the snow-covered cordillera.
At night when they sink on to the puna at their journey’s end, a faint murmur like many æolian harps is wafted into the perfect stillness of the frosty night. It is the llamas’ appreciation of rest.
PART III
IN THE JUNGLE
The land lying between Peru and Brazil is a mystery “although the bounds be known of all sides.... Some say it is a drowned land, full of lakes and watery places; others affirm there are great and flourishing kingdoms, ... where they say are wonderful things.”
Father Acosta