Exploration of the Valley of the Amazon, Part 2 (of 2)

by William Lewis Herndon; Lardner Gibbon

The temperature of the blood of a young bull in Cuzco was 100° Fahrenheit; air 57°. At the base of the Andes 101°; air 78°.

We were invited to join a party of gentlemen on horseback to meet the prefect and his family from Arequipa. At the hacienda Angostura, a large dinner table was spread on the piazza near a fresh stream of water, shaded by willow trees, the air fragrant with the perfumes of flowers and orange blossoms. The farm yards were filled with cattle and sheep, while the fields around were planted with maize, barley, potatoes, or green with lucerne. In the garden, peach, apple, and pear trees were seen. We dismounted in the court-yard. A mule came into the gate with a square box on his back, covered like a market wagon, with a raised cotton-cloth cover upon hoops. Inside were three noisy, laughing children. From the number of persons ready to assist the youngsters, there was no mistaking these little Arequipanians, who were delighted to get out of their box. The Señora and Señorita were in their riding dresses. The ease of manner and beauty of the Arequipa ladies have been celebrated; the daughter was about eighteen. She received the compliments of a hundred beaux with graceful modesty. The dinner table was well supplied with meats and wines, and a desert table with many good things. Champaigne wine and sweetmeats seemed of more assistance in speech-making and toasting than keeping the party together on the road back. A judge of the court assured the party "he should give up drinking water as soon as the navigation of the Madre-de-Dios was open."

Angostura belongs to the Bishop of Cuzco; it is one of the best cultivated haciendas in the valley.

A number of Indians collected in the small town of San Sebastian were celebrating the Saint's day of the little church. The main street was decorated with flags; arches were made with poles on each side, and strings stretched across, to which were suspended coins of silver. The first we passed under was adorned with one dollar pieces; the next, half dollars; then quarters, shillings, and sixpences. Other arches were made to which were hung pottery, fancifully-painted pitchers, jugs, pots, and jars—all of earthenware. These hung so close to our heads that some one plucked a specimen, which disrespectful act brought down a string, and almost all were broken under our horses' feet.

The Indians were dancing in the little plaza, some in black masks, others with cows' horns and the skin of the cow's head over their heads and shoulders. A crowd of them were teasing a young bull, pulling his tail and mounting him. The poor animal was tired down and secured, specially disgusted at the music of a cane flute and hide drum.

We halted in the plaza and witnessed a sham fight with bows and arrows, war clubs, and large wooden swords, gotten up for the moment for the benefit of the prefect and his family. It was the representation of a fight between the Quichua Indians of the Andes, and the Chunchos of the lowlands. The killed, wounded, and prisoners in Chunchos shoes was dreadful; while the delighted Quichuas went through the motions of cutting their enemies up, one by one, into small bits, and heaped them on one side like sticks in a wood pile.

The church doors were all open; the altar brilliantly lighted with tallow candles; and along the walls on the outside stood rows of immense chicha jars, carefully guarded by the women who huckstered it out—a sixpence for an earthen jugful. The whole affair was a curious mixture, difficult to digest by those unaccustomed to such habits. Many of the ancient Indian customs seem to be allowed; this has a good effect upon the aborigines, who give preference to cows' horns and chicha over the more expensive requirements of the church.

From the balconies in the streets of Cuzco flowers were showered upon the heads of the ladies, and the people shouted "Huzza for the new Cuzcanians!" Many families were ready to welcome the lady and her children into the prefectura, and after night she was serenaded by a brass band. We have never seen the moon rise with such splendor as it does over the snow-capped mountains to the east of Cuzco; she throws her light quietly down over this interesting valley. There are two noises which disturb its midnight stillness—the braying of a jackass and the baying of a dog; both seem to wake up as the moon peeps through the silvery peaks. The cocks crow as the moon is eclipsed by a passing cloud.

The house of a prefect is generally a gay one. The gentlemen meet in the evening to talk over the news of the day, play cards, and so on. There is very little visiting among the ladies of Cuzco except on Sunday after church. They are seldom seen walking in the streets. On Saturday evenings they repair to the plaza to purchase a new pair of shoes, which is the time to see them at most advantage. On these occasions the priests appear with little silver images, standing on one side of a large silver plate; as the ladies pay the Indians for their shoes, the padre presents the image to be kissed, and the plate receives a donation or church-tax upon the price of shoe-leather. There are very few who kiss the image that do not pay, unless it be the second time the priest has offered it on the same Saturday, and then they bashfully decline. On these days poor families send old books, bits of iron, horse-shoes, nails, spikes, bridle-bits, and stirrups, or any other article they may want the money for, and the Indian servant sells them for what she can get. There is little wealth in Cuzco; with a few exceptions, the people are as poor as they are indolent. Some of the more energetic, who own haciendas in the valley, and have mercantile houses in the city, are called rich—that is to say, they have more than they require to live upon.

The climate of Cuzco, during our stay, was not pleasant; cold rains water the hill-tops, which, in the morning, are white with frost, and being evaporated, form clouds. Though Cuzco is within the tropics, and the dry or warm season extends from May to September, the people are dressed in winter clothing. When the sun passes Cuzco, on his way south, the rainy season commences; the drops come down in hail and snow flakes, and under the vertical sun the people are in mid-winter storms, and require more clothing in what, astronomically speaking, is their summer, than they do in their winter months. Strangers suffer somewhat at first by not watching closely the changes of the temperature, and dressing accordingly. Influenza and rheumatic affections are very common; many of the poorer classes have small-pox for the want of vaccination. There is a good deal of dropsy, but few cases of consumption.