Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-05-11

| into a malarious region without it. In
Ecuador there are % varieties of trees that
produce the bark from which quinine is
made. but many of the most valuable are
| now nearly extinct, owing to the reckless
way in which they were stripped. They
flourish not only on the slopes of the Andes,
but equally well in Java, India, Algeria,
Mexico, the United States and wherever
they have been transplanted.
Chincona collectors aresnow obliged to 90
far into the forest in search of trees. and
suffer many hardships in pursuing the in
dustry. Mr.. Knox, the author, tells of a
Quito gentleman who asserted that he had
seen chincona tree 60 feet high, feet IN
diameter, which yielded 1000 pounds
Of green bark, or about 1000
pounds when dry. Another tree
that he saw gave $4,000 worth of ouinine.
Such trees are rare nowadays, but a few of
them would make ones fortune, considering
the rate at which quinine is retailed per
grain, and the enormous quantity consumed.
ICE A DOLLAR A POUND.
Balsas are rafts that particularly interest
the stranger. Huts upon them is the sole
habltatiOn of the owner and his family.
They are made of balsa logs which are as
light as cork. Balsas are used to transport
everything from the interior, including ice
from the distant peaks of Chimboraz 20 which
sells for dollar pound. They also carry
water in jars or barrels, brought from a
point 20 miles up the river, out of reach of
the brackish tide. Donkevs are the water
bearers. They.bray as thevsst trot through the
streets loaded with the indispensable LIQUID.
for there is not drop of fresh water In the
locality. Each beast is laden with two
casks. or enormous earthenware Jars, slunp
one on each side of him in a sort of rawhide
frame Though one sees many men and
women on the streets pretty much unclothed
and children entirely so, the donkeys all
wear the funniest looking pantalettes. not
from motives of modesty but to protect their
limbs and bellies from the attacks of the
gadt1y, whose sting is like the puncture of a
red-hot darning needle.
There is another article of Ecuador's COM
merce which, though not reckoned in anv
market reports, IS worthy of especial notice.
viz: human heads, dried and pressed tn
about the size of your fist, each wearing the
most Hie-llke expression upon the perfeetlv
preserved features. Most of the faces are
elaborately tattooed, and all have long black
hair; the lips are sewn together with tibers
twisted into coarse twine, hanging down
over the chin in heavy fringe, like that in a
macram's lambrequin. Centuries ago a
tribe OF Indians living near the northern
border of Ecuador used to preserve the cra-
NUNS OF their dead in this manner.
HUMAN HEADS IN MARKET.
Nobody now living knows how il was
done; but it is supposed that the bones were
all drawn out, bit by bit, through the neck
and then the head was buried in the hot drv
sand, until it shrank away to one-fourtR it,
former size and became perfectly preserved
As household adornments these gruesome
recuordos of dead folk are certainly mot
but they are very curious. es.
pecially since the art OF preparing them has
long been lost and the sewed-up lips tell no
They used to bring about SIG |
apiece, but now command all the way from
S100 to $500 and are very scarce at that.
Years ago the Ecuadorian Government |
put a stop to this sale, as it was learned that |
some modern Indians, instead of dealing ex-
in the brain-paps of their defunct |
ancestors, actually made a business of pre-
pairing fresh ones for the market Since |
long-haired ones sold for the highest price,
they took especial care OF the capillary
adornments of their wives and daughters |
with view to cutting their heads off one
by one. There is no doubt that this traffic |
in dried heads cost many lives, for the price
paid by museums and curio hunters was
enough to set an Ecuador Indian UP in al-
auence for all the rest Of his days, could he
to judiciously market his super
duous children and relatives.
FANNIE B. WARD.