Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-10-11

night. He found it enormously rich, anc
his sudden change in fortune attracted the
attention of the royal officers. Knowing
that he had married an Indian girl, they
mistrusted how it was and logged his foot
steps until the truth came out. Then they
found pretexi for arresting him, on some
false charge of treason to the Government
and took him to Lima, the seat of the vice.
regal Court and also of the Inquisition
After mock trial and the employment Of
diabolical tortures to wiring from him the
statements they demanded, he was sen.
fenced to death, and all his property, in
Guiding the mine that had never really be.
longed to him, was given to the Govern
ment. This meant that the officials them
selves intended to transfer mis- wealth to
their own pockets and as soon as he had
been executed in the public square of Lima
they hastened to secure the treasure. But
what was their dismay to find all the local
ity hopelessly flooded with water Incited
by Jose's Indian wife, her tribe had stopped
all the secret drains and the consequence
was that small lake covered and still
covers the entrance to the mines. To this
day the Indians have steadily refused to
give any information concerning the direc-
ton of the veins or the extent of the de-
post, though they doubtless know all
about it. These seemingly humble people
can keep a secret with the utmost fidelity,
being absolutely Indifferent to brides or
any other inducement. AT the present
time it is said that they know the location
of rich deposits in various parts of the
country, but will give no information con-
corning them, and poor as they are, will
not work the veins themselves, fearing to
share the melancholy fate of poor Don Sal
cedo.
Cold as it is, the markets of Puno are
held in the open air, the Quichuas occu-
plying one plaza for the sale of their goods,
the Aymaras another. The sales are
mostly conducted by women, who sit on
the ground in rows, each with her small
stock of chunos, frozen potatoes), charqui,
dried fish, peppers pease, beans, ETC.,
piled up in little heaps on blanket.
Each heap has a fixed price, which never
varies, whatever the fuctuatlon of the
market. For example, heap of dried
pease which you might hold IN two hands,
costs ten cents. If the market falls, the
heap is enlarged and you get a few peas
more; if it rises, you get smaller heap;
but ten cents you must pay, every time.
Neither have these women the remotest
idea of selling their stock in the lump,
or at wholesale. Should you ask one of
the women what she will take for all the
peas on hand, she cannot tell until all the
basketful has been sorted out into little
piles and their value computed at ten cents
per pile.
One day in Puno was much interested
in observing from my window group of
Quichua women, who sat from dawn till
dark on the frosty ground of big, bare
plaza, their llamas tethered behind them,
waiting for possible customers, but with
nothing in the world to sell except some
small punches of barley. Young women
and old were dressed exactly alike, in short
dresses of dark blue flannel, spun, woven
and dyed by themselves; the very full
skirts SHRED down over the hips, the
short jackets of the same material meet
ing at the bosom, but showing the white
chemise beneath, the large sleeves gath
cred slightly at the wrists and hanging
loosely in aesthetic style, and large hats of
the same blue flannel, deliberately trimmed
with red wooden "rick-rack" braid. All
were bare-footed, but looked perfectly COM
Portable and, though they did not talk
much and seldom smiled, seemed happy
and contented. Hour after hour they
patiently squatted there, busily spinning
wool of brightest hues, using hand-spindles,
which they twirled rapidly between the
palms.
During the day walked over to inter-
view them-but alas, they could not speak
a word of English or Spanish, and your
scribe is not versed in Quichua, so CONVEX
sation languished. But l learned from
them one thing, viz: that feminine in
stincts are about alike the wide world over,
whatever may be the environments. Every
one of those unsmiling, strong-featured
and industrious women showed as much
curiosity and interest in the Ito them) pc
culiar cut of my garments as | had in
theirs. and the admiring attention of each
was instantly attracted to bracelet of
Mexican coins on my wrist. One offered
me all the wool she had spun in exchange
for it another wanted to swap her brand
new hat, third her poncho, and others
pointed to their llamas as possible mediums
Of exchange.
But nobody came to buy their poor little
punches of barley, and still they spun on
contentedly. At length as twilight was
deepening, an old man strolled over and
purchased the entire stock on the plaza,
for which he paid precisely fifty-seven
cents. saw the money counted out and
divided, and then five women hoisted the
bundles on their heads and bore them
away to the corral of the purchaser.
A group of Indians in front of the house
was repairing bit of broken pavement !;
and though the workmen numbered half a
dozen and the place to be mended was
scarcely two yards square, it took all day
to do it. First they sat down on the
ground and followed out the space with
short-handled wooden shovels which
looked much like butter ladies, collecting
the dirt in their blanket aprons. This
they leisurely carried away somewhere,
returning after while, their aprons filled
with small stones. Then they sat on the
ground again and carefully laid the stones
in place, removing them many times to
make them all fit snugly, and at last
pounded each one down with another
stone of the same size. They have no use
here for hammers or mallets or wheel
barrows.
One day when acclimatization had
somewhat abated the terrors of sirroche, /
made pilgrimage through the town to
an antique arch on hilltop, which had
long commanded my admiration from a
distance. The most crowded street Of
Pono leads thereto, up sharp incline,
lined on either side with adobe cottages,
whose inmates focked to their doors in
amazement. 1t takes a good deal to
arouse especial interest in these constitu-
tionally sleepy people, but the rare spec
tacle of a woman walking abroad and
alone without the customary mdnta envel-
oping her head, will do more in that di-
rection than an earthquake could, being a
less common occurrence.
BY dint of considerable effort and stop
r.. al al L 1.