ray the expenses of their funerals. By this agreement he
realized a considerable sum of money. The Cholos made it a condition
that they should be buried in coffins, which is not common with the
lower classes in Peru. The Indian complied with this condition. When a
Cholo died, a coffin was sent to his residence. If too short, the corpse
was bent and forced into it. The interment then took place according to
the ritual of the Church. On the following night the Indian who had
contracted for the burials repaired with a confidential servant to the
churchyard, dug up the coffin, threw the body back into the grave, and
carried off the coffin, with the _mortaja_ (the funeral garment), which
served for the next customer. The contractor made each coffin last as
long as the boards would hold together. This system, at all events,
secured the Cholos against the danger of being buried alive.

The churchyard of Huacho presents a revolting spectacle. A low wall
surrounds a space of sandy ground, which is strewed with skulls, bones,
fragments of burial clothes, and mutilated human bodies. The coffin
plunderer, on replacing the corpse in the grave, merely throws some
loose sand over it, and the consequence is that the remains of the dead
frequently become the prey of dogs, foxes, and other carrion feeders.
When the family of a deceased person can contribute nothing to defray
the funeral expenses, the body is conveyed privately during the night to
the churchyard. In the morning it is found half consumed.

The environs of Huacho abound in fine fruit gardens, and productive
Indian farms. The climate is healthful, though very hot. The vicinity of
the sea and the convenience of good bathing would render it an agreeable
place of residence, were it not infested with vermin. Fleas propagate in
the sand in almost incredible multitudes, especially in the neighborhood
of the Indian huts, and any person entering them is in a moment covered
with hundreds of those tormentors. Bugs, too, swarm in the lime walls;
though that description of vermin is less numerous in Huacho than in
some of the more northern towns.

In a fine valley, about two short leagues from Huacho, the little town
of Huaura is situated on the bank of a river of the same name. This Rio
de Huaura is formed by the union of two rivers. The larger of the two
rises in the Cordillera de Paria, and flows through the wild ravine of
Chuichin: the smaller river, called the Rio Chico de Sayan,