ONE USE FOR CHICKENS.
"We were roused early in the morning by the crowing of chickens above our heads, and on looking around to find the cause of the disturbance we found that the roofs of the houses in Lima are the favorite places for keeping poultry. The flat surface and the absence of rain adapt the roof to this purpose, and the people are evidently too lazy to maintain their fowls elsewhere. You would think chickens might be cheap, when there are such facilities for rearing them; but they are not, and the same is the case with beef, mutton, and other animal food. A good many of the chickens are kept for fighting purposes, and not to be eaten; cock-fights are a common amusement among the people, and a great deal of money changes hands at one of these performances.
"We had a pleasant walk through the central market, which is in a large building covering an entire square; or, rather, built around the square with a court in the centre.
"On the sides of the square there are stalls for the larger dealers; the galleries and the open space in the centre are occupied by women who sit beside the articles they have to sell, and keep up a perpetual conversation with each other, like market-women all over the world. Lying only 12° south of the equator, Lima has a tropical climate; with the outlying range of the Andes sixty miles away, she is within a short railway ride of a temperate region. The result is that you can find in the market the vegetable products of two zones; those of the torrid, from the neighborhood of Lima, and those of the temperate, from the mountains.
"Here are tomatoes, green corn, cucumbers, radishes, parsnips, and other growths of New England or New York, side by side with oranges, peaches, chirimoyas, grapes, mangoes, and other tropical things whose names are not familiar to you. Flowers are in great abundance, and roses are everywhere grown in the gardens. You see them in great variety and profusion, and it is claimed for Lima that she can show more kinds of roses than any other city in the world. There are vases of growing flowers in nearly all the court-yards and on the balconies, and the women of all classes use the flowers for decorating their hair. At one time there was almost a craze for the cultivation of roses, and many a man spent a large part of his income in the experiment.
"We cannot say much for the cookery of Lima, if we are to judge by what we have seen. The hotel is managed by a Frenchman; his table is mainly French, but he has adopted some of the native dishes and customs. One article that may be called the national dish of Peru is a part of his bill of fare, and known as puchero. I have obtained the recipe for it, and here it is:
"'Have a kettle according to the size of your puchero; put in this kettle a large piece of beef or mutton, some cabbage, sweet potatoes, salt pork, sausage-meat, pigs' feet, yucas, bananas, quinces, pease, and rice, with spices, salt, and plenty of red pepper for seasoning. Add sufficient water, and stew the whole gently for five or six hours; then serve in a tureen or deep dish.'
"Puchero is patterned somewhat after the olla podrida of Spain, the chowder of New England, and the bouillabiasse of southern France, but it has more ingredients and more flavors than all of them; I cannot say I dislike it, but could get along better if they would make it with less red pepper. They seem to think that the more pepper they put in the better; our taste has become hardened to hot things in our experience with Oriental curries and African stews, but it is not yet quite up to the mark with these Spanish American preparations.