[522] The best known hot medicinal springs in Peru are those near Caxamarca (129.7° Fahr.), those at Laris, in the mountains overhanging the valley of the Vilcamayu, and those at Yura, near Arequipa.
Great attention was paid by the Yncas to the formation of their baths, called armana in Quichua. The springs (puquio), or hot springs (ccoñic puquio), were carefully paved with a mixture of small stones and a species of bitumen, and over them was arranged the figure of an animal, bird, or serpent in marble, basalt, or even gold or silver, which threw water from the mouth, either perpendicularly into the air, when the jet was called huraca, or horizontally, when it was called paccha. The flowing water was conducted through a pipe of metal or stone into jars of sculptured stone. The baths had small dressing-rooms attached, which were ornamented with statues in stone and metal. Antiguedades Peruanas, p. 238.
[523] Wheat was introduced into Peru by a lady named Maria de Escobar, wife of Don Diego de Chaves, a native of Truxillo; and one of those noble knights who raised their voices against the murder of the Ynca Atahualpa. She first sowed it in the valley of the Rimac, but there were so few seeds to begin with, that three years elapsed before any wheaten bread was made.
[524] Garcilasso says he does not know who introduced the barley, but thinks it probable that a few grains may have come with the wheat. Comm. Real., i, lib. ix, cap. 24.
[525] Olive trees from Seville were introduced into Peru in 1560, by Don Antonio de Ribera, a citizen of Lima, ten years after Cieza de Leon left the country. Ribera brought more than a hundred young plants out very carefully in two jars, but, as might have been expected, there were only three alive when he reached Lima, and he was very fortunate in preserving any. He planted them in a fruit garden near Lima, and stationed an army consisting of a hundred negroes and thirty dogs, to guard and watch over them night and day. In spite of all this care, one of the three plants was stolen and carried off to Chile, where it yielded many cuttings, which eventually formed flourishing plantations. At the end of three years the same olive tree was secretly planted again in Ribera’s garden, and he was never able to discover who had stolen it, nor who had restored it. There are now several olive plantations in the coast valleys of Peru, especially at Tambo, near Aiequipa, where there are five thousand olive trees and seven mills. G. de la Vega.
[526] This excellent suggestion, which Cieza de Leon made more than three hundred years ago, has never been adopted by the indolent Peruvians. I am convinced that plantations, not perhaps of oak, but of larch, fir, and birch, might be successfully formed in the more sheltered ravines of the Collao, and of other treeless parts of the Andes, for the supply of timber and fuel. The winters, from May to September, are not nearly so cold as in Scotland, though very dry; and during the rainy season, though it is cold, there is plenty of moisture. The introduction of these plantations would change the whole face of the country, and the introducer would confer an inestimable blessing on the inhabitants.
[527] This nasty animal is called añas in Quichua.
[528] Called Suri in Quichua. (Rhea Americana L.)
[529] The Huis-cacha (Lagidium Peruvianum May) is a large rodent very common in the Andes, and frequenting rocky ridges. It has a long bushy tail. In the morning and evening it creeps out from amongst its rocks to nibble the alpine grass.
[530] One called chuy in Quichua; the other yutu.