THE OMAHA SUNDAY BEF.: MAY 24, 1014.
5 B
i
x
Life and
(Copyright. 1914, by Frank G. Carpenter.)
f" 1UZCO. Peru, May 24. -For the
I I I last month I have spent the
l-JUJM Kff at part of my time on this
U&WI high plateau of the Andes, a
mighty valley which In places Is
100 miles wide, running north and south
from Ecuador to Bolivia. The alley Is
walled by snow-capped mountains. It
has many peaks that are three or four
miles above the sea, mighty volcanoes
that have poured out rampants of lava
that has congested, as It were. In Its
flow This great valley winds In and
out.
The most of It Is over li.COO feet above
the sea, but there are great depressions
here and there In which the land slopes
down to the altitude of a thousand feet,
giving It all the crops of the tropics and
the temperate zone.
This plateau Is one of the most thickly
populated parts of South America, and
It has some of the strangest people of
the new world The majority of them
are Indians, and several m lllons are tho
descendants of the Qulchuas, the sub
jects or slaves of the Incas. The Inca
empire extended from beyond Quito to
far down Into Chile, and Its people were
in many respects more civilized than the
Spaniards who conquered and enslaved
them. When Pliarro came they were
numbered by millions, and It !s said Unit
there were S.OOO.OftO of them In Peru nlone.
They were civilized and Industrious.
They were excellent farmers and thy
irrigated vast tracts which under the
Spaniards soon went to waste. It Is of
the descendants of these people that 1
wrte you toiay. By terrible oppressions
their number has been cut down to at
least one-third of what it was In the past,
but there are still In Peru perhaps '2.000,0(10
of them, nearly all of whom live on this
high plateau of the mountains.
Heart of Ancient Cmplrc.
I saw the Qulchuas first In the northern
part of the Andes. They populate the
high valleys of Ecuador and are st'll to
be found all the way from there south
to Bollv a. where the Aymara Indians
besjin Right here at Cusco I am In the
heart of their ancient emrire. and In
the center of tho population of today.
I have seen the Qulchuas by hundred?
In every town at which I have stopped
and I have photographed their little huts,
f scattered over the pampas: I have teen
j them tolling along tho trails with enor
ous loads on their backs, or going bare
footed, drlvlna their llamas and donkeys
loaded with the crops of their' master
to the markets of the cities. I have
watched them as they sat on the stone
floors of the plazas with their lltt'e ttcros
of vegetiblfj, grain or fruit ppreid out
before them, and have observed them
In the streets carrying great barrels of
water and other burdens from house to
house as the servants of the Cholos and
.whites. These Indians, who were for
merly unions the most civilized peoples
of the world outside or Surope, are now
about the most degraded and miserable
of any on earth. Sines the Spaniards
came they have been practically the ser
vants of the whites and the ha!f-breels.
Their Intelligence has been ground out
of them, and through generations of
abuses and of exploitation on the part of
their masters, added to the use of alchol
and coca, they have become nearer pure
animals than any race now borne as a
burden on the shoulders of white men.
In the short time I have been in South
America I do not pretend to pass Judg
ment as to tho present status of the
Quichua civilisation. The above opinions
aro the gist of those I have gathered
from men who have lived In South Amer
ica for many years. Some of the views
come from natives, and some from for
eigners who have been long in the coun
try. Let me give you a few of the talks
I have had on this subject. The first is
from a mining operator who is It the
head of the company which in the last
decade had operated quartz mines here
Jn the Andes, yielding more than $7,000,000
In gold. He is a man of closs observation
and a large employer of Indians. He Is,
moreover, open-minded and fair. He
really believes what he says.
Lack Intelligence.
"The Qulchuas of today appear to lack
ordinary intelligence. You tell a man to
fetch you a broom and he will bring you
a shovel. You send him for a hatchet,
and like as not, he will come back with
a glass of water. If you knock him over
and make him go back he may bring you
what you have asked. The shock starts
his brain to working and is only then
that he understands, I believe that the
cause of the deterioration of the Quichua
Is due somewhat to tile oppression he has
had on the part of the whites, but more
to the alcohol and coca, with which his
brain Is soaked from the time he reaches
young manhood until the day of his
death. The chewing of the coca leaf be
gins almost at birth, and boys and girls,
young men and young women, as well as
the old must have so much coc.a per day.
The Indians expect to be supplied with a
certain amount of coca In addition to their
wages. They mix the leaves with the
ashes of a certain tree and chew them.
The ashes furnish the alkali that loosens
thi alkaloid of the coca, giving them the
1 effect of the cocaine, .These ashes are
made up, In blocks and are sold In the
mdtket Every Indian carries his coca
pouch with him and he chews all the
time When his jaws stop you can see his
cud. the size of a walnut, bulging through
one of his cheeks. The coca takes away
hunger and enables him to endure fatigue,
but it also dries up the brain. As to al
cohol, both men and women drink great
quantities of aguardiente, or sugar
brandy. This has an alcohol grade of
about 62 per cent.
Drlsbt When Yovng,
Anothe- American who 'a a large mine
operator in Bolivia tellj me lhat h In
dian boys are bright Jntll the age of IS
years. Up to that time they, hava plenty
of coca, but their iirahu have not Ittn
sodden with liquor. On reason for this
is that their parents wain 'hi liquor
themselves. It is only after M years cf
age, when they begin to work indo
pendently of their paren.s, thct they can
get alcohol In any great quantity. After
that their brains materially deteriorate.
and they are on the downgrade for the
rest of their lives.
A native Peruvian of Spanish descent
said to me; "The Qulchuas have but
little ambition, and they live from hand
to mouth. They seem to have no spirit
and their brains appear to be atrophied."
Aa to alcohol, the extent to which It Is
used among the Indiana Is beyond con
ception. You may see drunken men and
women by scoros at any feast, and at
the railroad stations, and in every part
of the country there are Indians who go
reeling along with red faces and bleared
eyes. During my stay In Cuzco I have
gone into some of the alcohol stores, and
I am astonUhed at the vast quantities
old. There Is a wholesale and reiall
liquor establishment Just opposite my
hotel in the heart of this city, It con-
Work of
.Ati Indian, -ma-donna, -from yicuasri
slsts of a number of large rooms running
around a patio. The storeroom facing
the street Is walled with tin tanks, each
twice aa high aa a man, and as big
around as the boiler of a 100-ton loco
motive. I counted twelve of these tanks
standing upon platforms against tho wall
of that room. Each was marked as con
taining 2,000 liters of alcohol, and when I
tapped upon them with my knife I found
they were full. There were 24,000 quarts
of that terrible brandy In this one room
alone. Every tank had its faucet, and
the brandy was drawn out by the gallon,
the liter or bottle.
Proud of Ills nnHlneaa.
As I looked the store keeper came up
and I asked him some questions. He
seemed proud of his business and told me
that he made 1,500,000 pounds of the liquor
each year. He sells It to the Indians at
about J10 per quintal or 100 pounds, ship
ping It not only to the city of Cuzco,
but to other towns throughout the prov
ince. He describes his estate where the
brandy Is made. It Is called the Hacienda
Pachachaca and It consists of four great
farms, and it takes from S00 to 1,000 In
dian families to run it. The owner took
mo Into the court upon which the liquor
store faced and showed me how the stuff
Is brought in from the plantation. It is
packed in goatskins containing 100 pounds
each and is carried ninety miles upon
mules to Cuzco. He opened one of tho
skins and gave me a taste of the liquor.
It went down my throat like liquid fire,
and he took an alcohol gauge and showed
me that the stuff was BJ per cent fine.
I saw other alcohol stores, though not
so large, in Sicuanl. There are scores of
them in Arequipa and in almost all the
towns of the mountainous districts. The
alcohol sells for about 10 cents a quart.
The Indians usually buy it by the bottle,
a number getting together and treating
each other. The women drink quite as
freely as the men, and on saints' days
both sexes get together and have a
grand spree, at which time there Is muslo
and dancing and love making, irrespec
tive of the marriage relation. Sometimes
an Indian will drink a whole bottle right
down and his limit Is generally guaged
by the amount he Is able to purchase.
All Drink Chlcha.
In addition to alcohol, the Indian men,
wemen and children drink chlcha, a beer
made of corn. This Is to be found every
where In the mountains of Peru from one
end of it to the other. The ordinary way
of making chlcha Is to take the grains of
ripe corn and throw them Into tanks In
the earth. The grain Is then covered with
straw and sprinkled with water. It Is kept
wet until It swells and sprouts, after
which It is taken out and boiled for a
season. When set aside, so the liquor be
gins to ferment, and within a short time
It is beer.
In some villages I am told the old
custom of making chlcha still prevails. In
that case the fermentation Is started first
In the mouth. The girls come together
and have chewing matches. Tney shell off
the ripe grains, and grind them to powder
between their teeth, working their Jaws
until the saliva flows freely. In the midst
of the party Is a great wooden trough,
In which from time to time each Rlrl
spits out her mixture of saliva-soaked
meal. The spittle brings about fermenta
tion, and after a short time the mush,
with some water added, has turned to a
beer that will make the drunk come. 1
am told this is the best form of chtcna
ye' known, and that its man-ifart'irt
datik bark to the dvs of the Inca''
The use of the cn a leaf, whi h con
the Quichua Indians
j&xi old
tains the active principle of cocaine, is
universal. It is chewed every day and
there are certain fixed times during the
laboring hours when all stop for a re
cess, during which they chew coca. The
farmer gives his Indians a handful of
coca leaves every morning, and tho mine
owner has to supply a fixed amount of
coca In addition to the ordinary wages.
The coca takes away hunger and It keeps
out the cold. It enables one to breathe
better in the high altitudes of the Andes
and it Is claimed that Its use enables the
Indians to work longer and endure more
fatigue. It also deadens the brain, de
stroys tho will power and takes away all
forms of Intellectual activity.
The Indian not only chews the coca,
but he makes a tea of It. It is said to
be good for the stomach and the chewing
of It keeps the teeth white, and I am
told It preserves them. Nearly all of the
Indians I see have white teeth, and It is
said they seldom havo toothache, this
fact being attributed to coca.
Coca leaves are sold in all of the stores
here in Cuzco. They come from a shrub
which Is cultivated and which grows
from four to six feet in height. The
leaves are much llko a rose leaf or like
our wlntergrcen. They are picked green,
dried and put up in pacltages of twenty
five pounds each. Such a package sells
for $2.50. I bought 10 cents' worth today
and took It home In order to try It. Tho
senorlta who managed the store brought
out a pair of old brass scales, balanced
on the end of a beam, and weighed mo
out a full pound. I chewed some, but It
had no perceptible effect, probably be
cause I had not the ashes or lime to so
with It. I then made some Into a tea.
It tasted like a concoction of hay, and
made me feel good.
Cllmnte In Disagreeable,
As I see how the Indians live and work
orj these cold highlands of the Andes, I
do not wonder thai they aro driven to
coca and alcohol to keep off the blues.
Let me describe some of their houses,
scattered over the pampas. They are huts
made of mud. so rude and squalid that
they would hardly be fit for a hog
or as a stable for a good American cow.
The typical dwelling is about eight or ten
feet In width and perhaps ten or fifteen
feet long. It is so low that as you
stand outside It your head reaches above
where the thatched roof begins. This
building has walls made of sod or mud,
and Its roof Is straw, tied to poles or
canes, It has no windows and the only
door is a hole In the wall, so low that
you have to stoop down to go in. In
some of the huts there Is a framework
at the back, upon which the family sleep
at night, but in the most of them both
grown-ups and children lie down on the
ground and huddle together to keep them
selves warm. There Is no furniture to
be seen except a few llama skins, which
are spread on the floor. The people sleep
In the same clothing that they wear In
the daytime, and they cover themselves
with their ponchos or with the coarse
blankets the women weave for the pur
pose. The cooking Is done on a little clay
stove in one corner of the hut, and the
fuel Is the droppings of llamas and cattle,
which are gathered up and dried for the
purpose. Sometimes a kind of peat is
used, and sometimes the stunted vegeta
tion of the pampas Is chopped out and
burnt The sto'-e has no chimney and
the smoke blackens the roof of. tho hut
and gets out through the door There Is
j no sign of comfort about such a home
There ar no tablets cr rhalrs It (s. In
, fact, about as bad as any dos kennel or
1
Quickxxa. mart.
pioneer stable we have In America.
Indeed, It is difficult to believe that
hundreds of thousands of human being
are born, live nnd die In these squalid
huts of the Qulchuas. Their dwellings
are the same now that they have been I
for generations, and the only difference
of conditions among them is that some
families have several houses, while others
havo only one. Where a man Is rlchj he
may have on extra hut to store his
produce and his Implements for the farm,
but as a rule he has no more comforts
than the poor.
Many of the huts on the pampas have
small corrals, made of stone or mud,
about them, into which the sheep, llamas
and donkeys are driven at night. Some
have little patches of potatoes and barley
and qulnua nearby. Qulnua Is a kind of
a grain about ns big as the head of a
pin, that Is grown to make mush or
gruel. It Is a second cousin of the ordi
nary pigweed of the United States, and
our Department of Agriculture expects
to experiment with it, as a staple Ameri
can plant.
And this brings me to the food of the
Indians. They live very simply, their
diet consisting of mutton or llama meat
and potatoes, barley and corn, which thoy
soak and mash and cook In a stew. They
have also cholona, which Is frozen mut
ton, so dried that it will last for years.
! Now and then they have a chicken to
cat, and sometimes beef and pork. In
most cases the chickens and sometimes
the pigs sleep In the hut with the family.
The Americans who employ large num
bers of Indians at Cerro de Pasco and
furnish quarters for them at low rent
have to order a general cleaning out of
tho hogs from the huts every few weeks,
In order to keep the dwellings sanitary.
Use Kroien Potatoes.
Another food that Is used largely by the
Qulchuas Is chuno, or frozen potatoes.
Chuno looks like: bits of bleached bones,
but It Is really potatoes which have been
frozen and dried so that they can be
j kept for years without spotting. The po
! tatoes so used are a special variety of
about the size of a base ball. They are
first soaked In water. This Is done at
night Early In the morning before the
sun rises they are taken out and they
freeze. They are then covered with straw
to keep off the sun. The next night they
are soaked again and allowed to freeze.
This process Is continued from night to
night. After a time they grow very soft,
and the skins are trodden off with bare
feet. They ure now white as snow, and
after being dried will keep a long time.
They have to be soaked before cooking
and are usually served as a soup or a
stew. Sometimes they are sliced and
eaten with cheese between the slices in
the form of a sandwich.
I wish I could show you these Indians
as I see them by the hundreds about me.
They look as though they had stepped
out of the middle ages. The men wear
low-crowned hats with brims that turn
up. They have on bright-colored ponchos
or shawls, with their heads stuck through
a hole In the middle. Below the ponchos
you can see the short breeches. These
extend to the middle of the calf and are
slit up at one side as far as the knee.
The Indians afe either barefooted or have
untanned cowskln sandals. Some are
without ponchos and you can see that
their vesta are gayly embroidered. Not
r few have a kind of a nightcap of red,
blue or whits wool under their hats, and
this has flaps that so fit down over the
ears that they look as If they were really
the ears of the owners
FItAKJC G. CABPKNTER.
LITTLE JOURNEYS IN
OF OPPORTUNITY
A better and fairer chance for the pockctbook when it comes to
Graduation Gifts and Wedding Presents
Some "Direct From Factory'? Prices:
DIAMOND KJNOB,
wtf., 1'B ca"ai atones, eacn
Vyi-TtKV, cut diamond and very
iOfHt,'" solid gold mounting.
them right now at,
each
1-s i-it carat An entire gross bought at this weight
makes a splendid diamond ring In solid Q I I
gold mounting, value J2K, offered by us at O I i I U
1-4 csrat genuine "Wesseltons" without flnw or cur
bon. any style 14K s'lld mounting QQ I Cfl
$44 00 value at I lOU
1-4 carat genuine "Jnugers", perfect cut and the high
est grade stone money can buy. These stones would
be fortunate purchases at $00 00, while our lmniene
buying power through the branch stores enables tin to
offer them In 14 K trold, platinum QQR nil
head mountings. t, each OOOiUU
8 perfect tones weighing 4 carat each Oetuilno and
perfect Weselton. free from flaws or Imperfection
The cut, shapo and brlllancy tho best we could obtain
from our Amsterdam agents and we back these stones
with our reputation as experts. They nro fully worth
$160.00. The lot enntotns " diamonds weighing alight H
more, but nil offered at our special g J Q QQ
CAMEO ttmOB,
The very latest fashion Is a heavy
olid irold rlnc with a fine and ner-
feet cut cameo, possessing artistic
beauty and distinct value. A cameo
l like a diamond or an old violin
Via tWA .111,- ...I. n.i . nM lrl
.... " VJ II. U IUIH Chill WIIC I
vldual piece of
work free from
JAYft-YAV iiii innj- ann mourning
kJVVfcSS'V) quantities we can offer a per-
'OiSy'iY feet line from
$4.75 10 $9.75 up
PBITDAXTTB.
A multitude of very
striking new designs
with COTtAL, and othr
sets, also solid oold
mountings with dlft.
mendi, hundreds of
theso, every one distinc
tive, on which the reg
ular price would b
from 114 to $50, may
now bo selected tit
prices ranging- from-
$7 ,0 $25
BBACX&BTO.
Tho highest quality of heavy jrold-flll.
cd bracelets in the prettiest modern de
signs nnd all fitted with the Infalllbln
Patent Cafety clasp, regular prices
from $4.00 to IK, CO In Of Cd
right now at 9 OfiOU
250
Branch
Stores in
Nebraska
and Iowa
At WE SIGN OF
we CROWN
UP WE GCUXH STAIRS
Memorial Day
and to allow all
to participate in the exercises of respect
and honor to the
Nation's Hallowed Dead
the following stores will remain closed
Saturday, May 30, Until Noon
OPEN for BUSINESS
from 12 o'clock noon to 9 P. M.
Hayden Bros. Burgess-Nash Co.
Brandeis Stores Thompson-Belden Co.
atone a perfect
brilliant, placed
0 rings In this
OC ir
ODi0
WATCUKS
Mlrs'eB' b in a 11 blin
watch. Hampdou 4 00
alio watch iu H-IC
solid gold opontaco
case, bought In larRa
quantities nnd of-
2".. $14.25
&
TIE OXABr&.
Fine gifts for young
men. Solid gold as
well ns gold filled,
artistically designed
or plain for engrav
ing, at
VlfW If
liw
Y
from 11.60
tem enables
them at from
curr LINKS.
Solid Gold or gold-flll-ert
links with diamond
set or artistically de
signed, also plain with
Individual monogram,
very select, from
$1 t0 $12.50
I
VANITIES AND OOIH POBSEB.
In large and entirely new selec
tions, valued ni from $2 R0 and up
ward, may now be bought g g
OUEBT Or SQiTIBWABII.
Silverware for table use Is a most welcome and lasting
wedding gift: 25 pieces In a satin lined oak chest con
taining R knives, 6 forks, 6 tahle spoons, tea spoons,
butter knlfo nnd nilgai- nhell. all of superior quality anil
not to be confuted with ordlnnry, nupcrflclally OC QQ
plated wnre. now offered nt tgU.MW
OUT OI.AB3.
An a npeclnl Inducement we are offering for a short time
the regular S-lnch Rock Crystal Bowl in the famous wild
rose design and always valued Sfi.QO
at $10 00. for
In Observation of
THE FIELD
Young1 Oentlsmen's Watch, Elgin,
IS-Jewel movement, fitted Jn 33
year, M-k gold filled, open face
case of convenient and up-to-date
small size; Just the proper thing
ior graauaiion
$9.75
gift
75c I! $3.75
BfJAiir FirJB.
Very latest creations in solid gold as well
ns gold filled pins for gentlemen' neckwear,
nesular value on some of these would be
to ISO.00. while our buying sys
uyln sys-
$15.00
tin o offer
20 Years
Continued
Satisfaction
To
Customers
75o