le dyes. Among
Inca ruins one may find small stone mortars, in which the primitive
pigments were ground and mixed with infinite care. Although the modern
Indian still prefers the product of hand looms, he has been quick to
adopt the harsh aniline dyes, which are not only easier to secure,
but produce more striking results.

As a citizen of Connecticut it gave me quite a start to see, carelessly
exposed to the weather on the rough cobblestones of the plaza,
bright new hardware from New Haven and New Britain--locks, keys,
spring scales, bolts, screw eyes, hooks, and other "wooden nutmegs."

At the tables of the "money-changers," just outside of the
sacred enclosure, are the real moneymakers, who give nothing for
something. Thimble-riggers and three-card-monte-men do a brisk
business and stand ready to fleece the guileless native or the
unsuspecting foreigner. The operators may wear ragged ponchos and
appear to be incapable of deep designs, but they know all the tricks
of the trade! The most striking feature of the fair is the presence
of various Aymara secret societies, whose members, wearing repulsive
masks, are clad in the most extraordinary costumes which can be
invented by primitive imaginations. Each society has its own uniform,
made up of tinsels and figured satins, tin-foil, gold and silver leaf,
gaudy textiles, magnificent epaulets bearing large golden stars on a
background of silver decorated with glittering gems of colored glass;
tinted "ostrich" plumes of many colors sticking straight up eighteen
inches above the heads of their wearers, gaudy ribbons, beruffled
bodices, puffed sleeves, and slashed trunks. Some of these strange
costumes are actually reminiscent of the sixteenth century. The wearers
are provided with flutes, whistles, cymbals, flageolets, snare drums,
and rattles, or other noise-makers. The result is an indescribable
hubbub; a garish human kaleidoscope, accompanied by fiendish clamor
and unmusical noises which fairly outstrip a dozen jazz bands. It is
bedlam let loose, a scene of wild uproar and confusion.

The members of one group were dressed to represent female angels,
their heads tightly turbaned so as to bear the maximum number of
tall, waving, variegated plumes. On their backs were gaudy wings
resembling the butterflies of children's pantomimes. Many wore colored
goggles. They marched solemnly around the plaza, playing on bamboo
flageolets, their plaintive tunes drowned in the din of big