“The domestic flocks are of two kinds, one small, and called pacos, the others with less wool, and useful as beasts of burden, called llamas. The llamas have long necks like those of camels, and this is necessary to enable them to browse, as they stand high on their legs. They are of various colours, some white all over, others black all over, others grey, others black and white, which they call moro-moro. For sacrifices the Indians were very particular to select the proper colour, according to the season or occasion. The Indians make cloth from the wool, a coarse sort called auasca, and a fine sort called ccompi. Of this ccompi they make table cloths, napkins, and other cloths very skilfully worked, which have a lustre like silk. In the time of the Yncas the principal ccompi workers lived at Capachica, near the lake of Titicaca. They use dyes which are gathered from various plants.
“The llamas carry loads weighing from four to six arrobas (100 to 150 lbs.), but do not go further than three, or at the most four leagues a day. They are all fond of a cold climate, and die when they are taken down into the warm valleys. They have a very pleasant look, for they will stop in the road and watch a person very attentively for some time without moving, with their necks raised up, so that it causes laughter to see their serenity; but sometimes they suddenly take fright and run off to inaccessible places with their loads.” Acosta, lib. iv, cap. 41, p. 293.
The llama measures, from the sole of the hoof to the top of the head, 4 feet 6 to 8 inches, and from the sole of the hoof to the shoulders 2 feet 11 inches to 3 feet. The female is usually smaller, but her wool is finer and better. The young llamas are left with their dams for about a year. In Acosta’s time (1608) a llama was worth six or seven dollars, and in 1840 about from three to four dollars. The Indians are very fond of these animals. They adorn them by tying bows of ribbon to their ears, and, before loading, they always fondle and caress them affectionately. See Von Tschudi’s Travels, pp. 307-14.
The llama is invaluable to the Peruvian Indians, and Cieza de Leon truly says that without this useful animal they could scarcely exist. Their food is llama flesh, which may be preserved for a long time in the form of charqui or smoke-dried meat, their clothing is made from llama wool, all the leather they use is from llama hides, the only fuel they have in many parts of the Collao is llama dung, and, while living, the llama is their beast of burden.
[518] The molle tree (Schinus Molle: Lin.) is well known in the countries bordering on the Mediterranean, and Mrs. Clements Markham introduced it into the Neilgherry hills in Southern India in 1861. It is the commonest tree in some parts of the Andes, especially in the valleys of Xauxa, Guamanga, Andahuaylas, Abancay, and the Vilcamayu, and in the campiña of Arequipa; where its graceful foliage and bunches of red berries overshadow the roads.
Acosta says that the molle tree possesses rare virtues, and that the Indians make a wine of the small twigs (lib. iv, cap. 30). Garcilasso de la Vega describes it as forming its fruit in large bunches. “The fruits are small round grains like coriander seeds, the leaves are small and always green. When ripe the berry has a slightly sweet taste on the surface, but the rest is very bitter. They make a beverage of the berries by gently rubbing them in the hand, in warm water, until all their sweetness has come out, without any of the bitter. The water is then allowed to stand for three or four days, and it makes a very pleasant and healing drink. When mixed with chicha it improves the flavour. The same water boiled until it is curdled, forms treacle, and when put in the sun it becomes vinegar. The resin of the molle is very efficacious in curing wounds, and for strengthening the gums. The leaves boiled in water also have healing virtues. I remember when the valley of Yucay was adorned with great numbers of these useful trees, and in a few years afterwards there were scarcely any; for they had all been used to make charcoal.” Comm. Real., i, lib. viii, cap. 12, p. 280.
The resin of the molle is a substance like mastick, and the Peruvians still use it for strengthening their gums.
[519] The Collahuayas, or itinerant native doctors of Peru, still carry about a vast number of herbs and roots, which are supposed to cure all diseases.
[520] Buenaventura.
[521] See p. 26.