[136] A Peruvian author, Don J. A. Delavalle, gives in one of his works the following severe, yet faithful, portraiture of the state of letters in his native country:—"En un país en el que el cultivo de las letras ni constituye una profesion, ni crea una posicion social, ni procura lo necesario—no decimos para lucrar con ella—para conseguir el sustento para la vida, nos admiraremos de que haya quien escriba en Lima, y reputaremos como extraordinario el número de obras que han salido de sus prensas en 1860, por muy pequeño que este haya sido. Sin proteccion, pues, y sin estimulo, ni oficial, ni social, ¿ qué se podrá esperar de las letras Peruanas?" (Translation of the foregoing.) "In a country where the cultivation of letters is not a profession by itself, where literature confers no social position, and barely procures the necessaries of life,—we do not speak of realizing competence and independence,—we marvel there should be any one in Lima who writes at all, and we consider little less than extraordinary the number of books which have issued from its press in 1860, insignificant as the sum total may be. Without protection, without influence, and without stimulus, official or social, who can suffer himself to hope for a better future for Peruvian literature?" (Compare Peru in 1860, in the National Annual Register, by Alfredo G. Leubel, Lima, 1861.)
[137] Pachacamác, the invisible God, i. e. "he who created the earth out of nothing."
[138] In Cañete, an Indian village of 9000 inhabitants, 60 English miles from Lurin, there are also numerous Peruvian architectural memorials, as also an antique temple of idols, which have never been carefully examined. On my return to Lima, I was shown the mummy of a very young child, which Don Juan Quiros, deputy from the province of Cañete, had brought to the capital with him from his own home. The little corpse, quite mummified, lay in a beautiful, neatly-plaited little basket, and was swathed in layers of fine variegated cloth. On both sides lay toys of various kinds, attesting not alone the tenderness of the mother for her dead offspring, but also that a high degree of artistic taste and finish had been attained.
[139] According to the "Estadistica general de Lima" (1858) of M. Fuentes, Lima has a population of 94,195, all told; according to the "Anuario Nacional" of A. Leubel for 1861, only 85,116 souls, who inhabit a surface of 6523.597 square Varas (Spanish). The entire population of Peru can hardly exceed 1,900,000, but a reliable census has never yet been made.
[140] Once during my stay in Lima I had an opportunity of conversing with Don Ramon. He had come up from his country-seat, or rather from the roulette-table of Chorillos, to the capital, and was courteous enough to accord me a reception at his house. After passing a couple of sentinels, I was ushered through a large bare room into a small ill-lighted apartment on the ground-floor, when I found myself suddenly face to face with the President of the Peruvian Republic. I was presented by a friend settled in Lima. The General is a mestizo with a strongly-marked brown Indian visage, projecting cheek-bones, and an arched nose, wiry grey hair kept close cropped, and energetic, but withal coarse features. He is so far entitled to gratitude, that during the few years he has swayed the destinies of the Republic, he has maintained internal tranquillity. But there still remains the saddening feeling, borne out by the actual state of matters, that a territory over which Spanish grandees and viceroys once held sway, is at present ruled by an Indian half-breed, who can scarcely read and write. In manners and general appearance, Don Ramon Castilla strongly reminded me of his dusky confrère, General Rafael Carrera, President of Guatemala, with whose despotic tendencies he may be said fully to sympathize.
[141] Thus too it is the predominance of the pure Spanish type and the extent of foreign immigration, which render the future of Chile so hopeful.
[142] Vide E. Pöppig, Travels in Chile, Peru, and down the Amazon, vol. ii. p. 248.—Von Tschudi, Sketches of Peruvian Travel, vol. ii. p. 290.—Weddell, Travels in Northern Bolivia in 1853, p. 514.—Von Bibra, Narcotics and their Influence on Man.—History of the Expedition of M. Castelnau in the Central Territories of South America. Paris, 1850, vol. iii. p. 349.—Dr. Paul Montegazza, "Researches into the Hygienic and Medicinal Properties of Coca. Annali de Medicina, March, 1859."
[143] This custom of the Aymara Indians, not less universal than extraordinary, of standing on their heads after long and fatiguing marches, seems to be the result of an instinct which teaches them how best to mitigate the severe pressure of the blood.
[144] The mail goes four times a month from La Paz to Tacna, and usually weighs 25 lbs., which the courier carries on his back and delivers within some five or six days, without other nourishment than that already specified!
[145] The Aymara Indian rarely uses animal food, as to do so he would require to kill one of his beloved Llamas. His chief food consists of roasted Chuño, a small bitter species of potato, which flourishes only on the barren, rugged plateau of the Andes inhabited by the Aymara, where neither the common potato nor the maize continue to grow; even barley, which the Spaniards introduced, ceases to thrive. Their only other food is a species of moss, which grows in the swamps, and is called by the natives "Lanta." Under such alimentary conditions, it is readily intelligible why the Aymara have a predilection for coca balls (acullica), which (as sailors and others do with us, with tobacco) they keep continually rolling about in their mouths, and which, as soon as the whole of the juice has been sucked out, is thrown away and replaced by a fresh "quid." The juice of the green leaves diluted with oceans of saliva is usually swallowed. An Indian chews on the average an ounce to an ounce and a half per diem, but on feast-days double that quantity.