The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1885-07-21
NIGH CHIMBORAZO.
STRANGE CUSTOMS OF THE PEOPLE
OF ECUADOR.
Women Still Wearing Mourning for the
Last of the Incas-The Search for
AtahuaIipa's Buried Ran
soma REGULARITY.
fOuito Cor. New York Sun. I

The population of Ecuador is abou
1000, 900, and the nation owes twenty golC
dollars per capita for every one of the in
habitantS The president is compelled Il
live ut Guayaquil so as to see that tht
customs duties, the only source of reve
nue., reach the government, and to quel
the revolutions that are constantly arising
Three hundred thousand of the popula
ton are of Spanish descent, 100, 900 are
foreigners. and 900, 900 native Indians OF
persons Of mixed blood The commerce
is in the hands of the foreigners entirely,
and thus haze mortgage upon the entire
country. The Indians are the only PEG
pie who work Over the doors of the
residences or the business houses, anC
both are usually under the same roof, are
signs reading: This is the property Of
an EngliShman. " This is the property
of a citizen of Germany, and so on,
necessary warning to revolutionists, who
are thus notified to keep their hands off.
The Spaniards are the aristocracy, poor
but proud, very proud The mixed race
furnishes the mechanics and artisans
while the Indians tin the soil and do the
drudgery. 4 laborer gets 81 to So a
month and boards himself, except when
he IS fortunate enough to have a wife out
at service The Indians never marry, be
cause they cannot afford to. The law
cOmpels him 10 pay the priest fee of SIS,
more money than most of them can ever
accumulate. When a Spaniard marries,
the fee is paid by contributions from his
relatives
1t is popularity of the Indian that he
will sell nothing at wholesale, nor will he
trade with you anywhere but in the
market place, on the spot where he and
his forefathers have sold garden
truck for three centuries AL
tn ough travellers on the highways meet
whole armies of Indians, bearing upon
their backs heavy burdens Of vegetables
and other supplies, they can purchase
nothing OF them, as the native will not
sell his goods until he gets to the place
where he is in the habit of selling them
He will carry them ten miles and dispose
of them for less than he was offered at
home An old woman was trudging along
the other day with a heavy basket of
pineapples and other fruits, and we tried
to relieve her of part of her load, offer
ing 10 cents for pineappleS which can be
had for a quartillO, or q cents, in market.
She was polite, but firm, and declined to
sell anything until she got to town, al
though there was a weary, dusty Journey
of two leagues ahead of her The guide
explained that she was suspicious at the
high price we offered. and imagined that
pineapples must be very scarce in market.
or we would not pay so much on the
refuse to sell except at their regular stand
The same rule exists in Guatemala A
gentleman who lives some distance from
town said that for the last four years he
had been trying to get the Indians, who
passed every morning with packs of
alfalfa (the tropical clover, to sell him
some at his gate, but they invariably re-
fused to do SO; consequently he was COM
PEELED to 20 into town to buy what was
a. inH hEr hi
natives sell at wholesale They will give
you gourd full of potatoes for penny
as often as you like, but will not sell
their stock in a lump. They will give
you dozen eggs for a real 90 cents. but
will not sell you five dozen for 81. This
logged adherence to custom can not be
accounted for, except On the supposition
that their suspicious are excited by an at
tempt to depart from it
In Ecuador there are no smaller coins
than the quartilIo. change is therefore
made by the use of bread On his way to
market the purchaser stops at the bakery
and gets a dozen or twenty breakfast |
rolls, which cost about 1 cent each, and |
the market women receive them and give |
them as change for small purchases. If !
you buy cents worth Of anything and !
otter a quartillo in payment you get a |
breakfast roll for the balance due YOU.
The Indians live in villages and com. !
which are presided over by an |
alcalde or governor. The native women |
all wear black. One never finds a glimpse |
Of color upon a descendant of the ancient |
race. They are in perpetual mourning |
Tor Atahuallpa, the last Of the Incas who |
was cruelty murdered by Pizarro. Their |
costume is a short black skirt and a
square robe or mantle of black. which
hey wear over their heads and hold in /
place by large pin or thorn between the
shoulders. They look like nuns, and |
walk the streets with burdens upon their
packs or heads in professions as solemn as
. funeral They never laugh, and scarcely
,Ver smile; they have no songs and no
Their only semblance to
music is mournful chant which they
rive in unison at the feasts which are in |
ended to keep live the memories of the |
meas They cling to their traditions and
he customs of their ancestors They re-
member the ancient glory of their race,
nd look to its rest oration as the AZtecs of |
Mexico look for the coming of Monte |
una. They have relics which they guard
With the most sacred care, and two great
ecrets no amount of torture at the hands
# the Spaniards has been able to wiring
rom them. These are the art of temper
ng copper so as to give it as keen and en-.
Turing an edge as steel, and the buria. |
lace of the Incarial treasures.
1t will be remembered that Pizarro or
cred to release Atahuallpa if the Indians
you'd ill with gold the room in which he
Tas kept a prisoner. They did it. Pizarro
bought there must be more where this
anne from, and demanded that the ran
pm be doubled. Runners were sent over
ne country to collect the treasure of the
ingdom, and were on their way to Cax-
marca. where the Inca was a prisoner,
'aded down with gold to buy his free
ON, when they heard that Pizarro had
tangled him. This treasure was buried
omewhere in the mountains of Llanga- !
att, northwest of Quito, and has been
,arched for ever since.
AdVantageouSIy. r
fRoStOD |