antity of tapers is consumed. The principal articles of traffic
produced by the natives are woollen ponchos and blankets, unspun colored
wool, saddle-cloths, stirrups and horseshoes. The last-named articles
are purchased chiefly by the arrieros of the coast. It may seem strange
that stores of horseshoes should be kept ready made; but so it is; for
though in Europe we make the shoe to fit the hoof, yet in Peru it is the
practice to cut the hoof to fit the shoe. On Yca brandy more money is
expended than on every other article of trade combined. The quantity of
that spirit annually transported to the Sierra exceeds belief. To see
the Indians on Sundays and festival days thronging to the shops of the
spirit dealers, with their jugs and bottles, one might fairly presume
that more brandy is drunk in the Sierra in one day, than in many of the
towns of Europe in a year. In some parts--for example, in the province
of Jauja--hens' eggs are circulated as small coin, forty-eight or fifty
being counted for a dollar. In the market-place and in the shops the
Indians make most of their purchases with this brittle sort of money:
one will give two or three eggs for brandy, another for indigo, and a
third for cigars. These eggs are packed in boxes by the shop-keepers,
and sent to Lima. From Jauja alone, several thousand loads of eggs are
annually forwarded to the capital.

Most of the mestizos possess little estates (_chacras_), the produce of
which, consisting of grain, vegetables and clover, is disposed of in the
towns of the Sierra, or in the mining districts of the Puna. As the
profits arising from the chacras usually suffice to provide their owners
with a comfortable subsistence, the mestizos pass their lives in
idleness and pleasure. They spend the chief portion of the day in the
true Spanish style, gossiping in groups in the streets, and wrapped in
their mantles. When the state of the weather does not admit of this sort
of out-door lounging the time is passed in gaming or cock-fighting. This
latter diversion is no less in favor in the Sierra than in Lima. Such
enormous bets are laid at these cock-fights, that the losses frequently
entail ruin on persons of tolerably good fortune.

The agriculture of the Sierra is wholly consigned to the Indians, who
either cultivate their own lands, or for very poor wages labor for the
mestizos. In September, the ground is ploughed and prepared for sowing,
which operation is performed in October, a