TURF HOUSE NEAR LAKE TITICACA.
The road winds along the shore of the lake for a large part of the way. The ground is destitute of trees, and the only vegetation is the grass, which furnishes nourishment to the sheep and other animals, and the tola or tortora that fill the shallow waters, and often extend long distances from the shores. The houses of the shepherds are made of turf, which is thin, but tough, and serves admirably for building purposes. Not only the houses are made of it, but the corrals for sheep, and any other needed edifices. At a little distance these houses resemble haystacks, as they are nearly always conical in shape; there is a hole near the apex of the cone, where the smoke finds its way outward after leisurely traversing the whole interior of the building.
Fred entered one of these huts, but he did not stay long. The interior was extremely dirty; Manuel said, that when it became so bad that the owners could not longer endure it they deserted the hut and built another. "But they don't move often," he added, "and the huts must be very bad indeed before their owners will take the trouble to put up new ones."
CHULPAS, OR BURIAL-TOWERS.
There are some ruins in the neighborhood of Huancané, but it was not considered worth while to visit them. They consist mostly of chulpas, or burial-towers, which are nothing more than towers, either round or square, with interior spaces for the reception of the remains of the dead. A description of one will suffice for all.
It is seventeen feet square, and twenty-four feet high, and rises from a platform of cut stones twenty-two feet on each side, and raised a foot above the ground. Three feet below the top there is a cornice two feet deep, which projects about twelve inches on every side, and is the only external ornament. There is a door or opening eighteen inches square on the eastern face, and level with the platform on which the chulpa stands. Inside there is a vault or chamber eleven feet square and thirteen feet high; its sides rise vertically for about eight feet, and then come together to form a pointed arch. On each of the sides of the interior there is a niche three feet high and eighteen inches wide, and the entrance is directly under one of these niches.
The round chulpas have a close resemblance to the turf huts of the shepherds; some of the huts have cornices, in imitation of the architecture of the chulpas, and it is possible that the form of the dwelling was taken from that of the burial-towers.