l of a different hue. As the day
grows warmer they remove a skirt showing one of a different hue. They
are proud of their skirts and take much pride in showing each other
their fine clothing.

These women too are nearly always at work. If they are walking along
driving llamas they are working as they walk winding wool into yarn or
knitting some garment. With juices from plants the yarn is colored and
by means of a loom which any woman among them can make they weave this
yarn into a kind of cloth.

In Bolivian cities there are large markets to which these Indian women
especially resort. On the ground are little piles of fruit, coca leaves
and other products. They have no scales and sell by the pile. The
gardeners will sell their products of onions, beans, parched corn and
all such stuff in this way.

Thus the people of this great inland empire live above the clouds. One
of their railroads is a half mile higher than Pike's Peak in places and
one of their cities, Aullagus, lacks but a hundred feet of being as high
as this. They have four cities more than fourteen thousand feet above
sea level, twenty-six above the thirteen thousand foot line, and
seventy-three cities above the twelve thousand foot line. Of the one
hundred and fifty-one cities in Bolivia most every one is above the
eleven thousand foot line. Truly this land is the "Switzerland of South
America."

CHAPTER XXV

THE LAND OF MYSTERY--PERU

When we reach the backbone of Peru we are not only above the clouds as
in Bolivia, but we are surrounded by mystery. Here can be seen today the
ruins of temples that were richer perhaps than any of those of the
countries with which we are all so familiar. This article, however, will
largely have to do with the Peruvian country as it is today. You could
take a map of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, North and South Dakota,
Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Nebraska and Oklahoma, place them all on the
map of Peru and have territory left.

The country runs largely north and south, having some fourteen hundred
miles of sea coast. In the north is a great desert plain, but in this
almost lifeless desert there is a great valley in which is a most
interesting city. The name of this city is Piura and it is on a small
river bearing the same name. This river is more like the Nile in Egypt
than any other river known. Up and down this river are farms and
plantations with irrigation ditches leading to fields of rice and grain,
sug