and vicunas in this vicinity to make ponchos and blankets
of high grade, much desired not only in this locality but even in
Arequipa. These are marketed, as so often happens in the outlying
parts of the world, at a great annual fair, attended by traders who
come hundreds of miles, bringing the manufactured articles of the
outer world and seeking the highly desired products of these secluded
towns. The great fair for this vicinity has been held, for untold
generations, on the shores of Lake Parinacochas. Every one is anxious
to attend the fair, which is an occasion for seeing one's friends, an
opportunity for jollification, carousing, and general enjoyment--like a
large county fair at home. Except for this annual fair week, the basin
of Parinacochas is as bleak and desolate as our own fair-grounds,
with scarcely a house to be seen except those that are used for the
purposes of the fair. Had we been bound for Parinacochas at the proper
season nothing could have been more reasonable and praiseworthy. Why
anybody should want to go to Parinacochas during one of the other
fifty-one weeks in the year was utterly beyond the comprehension
or understanding of these village worthies. So, to our "selectmen,"
are the idiosyncrasies of itinerant gypsies who wish to camp in our
deserted fair-grounds.

The Tejadas were not anxious to spend the night in town--probably
because, according to our contract, the cost of feeding the mules
devolved entirely upon them and fodder is always far more expensive
in town than in the country. It was just as well for us that this
was so, for I am sure that before morning the village gossips would
have persuaded the gobernador to arrest us. As it was, however, he was
pleasant and hospitable, and considerably amused at the embarrassment
of an Indian woman who was weaving at a hand loom in his courtyard
and whom we desired to photograph. She could not easily escape, for
she was sitting on the ground with one end of the loom fastened around
her waist, the other end tied to a eucalyptus tree. So she covered her
eyes and mouth with her hands, and almost wept with mortification at
our strange procedure. Peruvian Indian women are invariably extremely
shy, rarely like to be photographed, and are anxious only to escape
observation and notice. The ladies of the gobernador's own family,
however, of mixed Spanish and Indian ancestry, not only had no
objection to being photographed, but were moved to unseemly and
u