e that some
timely help would deliver me from my dreary situation.

It was about noon. I heard a monotonous short cry. With joy I
recognized the well-known sound. I climbed up the nearest rock, and
looking down into a hollow, I perceived two Indians whom I had seen the
day before, driving their llamas to the nearest mine works. I prevailed
on them, by the gift of a little tobacco, to let me have one of their
llamas to carry my luggage, and having strewed a few handfuls of earth
on the corpse of the murdered man, I departed. The scene of the
incidents above described was the Cave of Lenas, in the Altos which
lead southward to the Quebrada of Huaitara.

FOOTNOTE:

[Footnote 70: A mine is said to be in _boya_ when it yields an
unusually abundant supply of metal. Owing to the great number of mines
in Cerro de Pasco, some of them are always in this prolific state.
There are times when the _boyas_ bring such an influx of miners to
Cerro de Pasco that the population is augmented to double or triple its
ordinary amount.]

[Footnote 71: Huachacas are the portions of ore which are distributed
among the Indians at the time of the _boyas_, instead of their wages
being paid in money.]

[Footnote 72: A shop in which chicha, brandy, &c., are vended.]

[Footnote 73: The date of Salcedo's death was May, 1669.]

[Footnote 74: Ninacaca is 12,853 feet, and Carhuamayo 13,087 feet above
the sea level.]

[Footnote 75: It is also called the Laguna de Reyes, and the Laguna de
Junin.]

CHAPTER XIII.

The Sierra--Its Climate and Productions--Inhabitants--Trade--Eggs
circulated as money--Mestizos in the Sierra--Their Idleness and Love of
Gaming and Betting--Agriculture--The Quinua Plant, a substitute for
Potatoes--Growth of Vegetables and Fruits in the Sierra--Rural
Festivals at the Seasons of Sowing and Reaping--Skill of the Indians in
various Handicrafts--Excess of Brandy-Drinking--Chicha--Disgusting mode
of making it--Festivals of Saints--Dances and Bull-Fights--Celebration
of Christmas-Day, New-Year's Day, Palm Sunday, and Good
Friday--Contributions levied on the Indians--Tardy and Irregular
Transmission of Letters--Trade in Mules--General Style of Building in
the Towns and Villages of the Sierra--Ceja de la Montana.

The Peruvian highlands, or level heights, described in a previous
chapter under the designation of the Puna, are intersected by numerous
valleys situated several thousand feet lower than the level heights,