The Forrest City times., 1891-08-14
SOME NATIVES OF PERU.
DESCENDANTS OF INCAS LIVE
 IN THE MOUNTAINS.
The Road LeadIng to Their City is Almost Inaccessible Farming Upder Dlf. Aculties They Have tho
 Coca Habit.

In one of the most remote regions of Peru, far up in the Sierra, accessible only by narrow and broken roads, are situated the famous provinces of Car abaya and Sandia, known by the form CT name only until 1875, says writer in the Philadelphia Telegraph. The region has attracted attention from the earliest period in which Peru was ex. plored. and is now claiming renewed interest because. in spite of the wealth it has already yielded to the patient delivers in the earth, it is hoped tha. there yet lie awaiting the touch of the present generation further ard possibl, even vaster stores of precious metal.
 The city of Sandia is situated in | picturesque canyon at an elevation oi 7,250 feet. It has population of about 700 within the town limits, and of 1000 including the peublos in tho neighborhood, all controlled by the governor of Sandia. To reach Sandia one must travel for two days by sea, south from Callao, the seaport of Lima thence eastward by railroad journey of 400 miles, and after that twenty eight leagues must be traversed on muleback before coming to the city Clement R. Markham says. The roads of Sandia are bad; in their best places they are like steep back attic stairs after an earthquake. In others there are absolutely no roads, and the traveller must make his way through bush and bramble as best he can.
 The natives cover their heads and faces during these mountain journeys with curious helmet-like mask knit ted by the women with skillfully shaped openings for eyes nostrils and mouth, and these doubtless often save them from death by freezing.
 They are descendants, more or less pure, of the Incas their language being the Quichua, that expressive, beautiful and complete idiom the vo- cabulary and construction of which at tracted the attention of no less an inn portant man than Francisco Fernandez dc Cordova. It is difficult language to learn, abounding in very hard gut tural sounds until it seems as if one would snap his vocal chords in the effort to pronounce some combinations of letters.
 These people have from early times cultivated the soil in the face of diff culties which might we'll have proved insurmountable. Terraces are still found throughout the mountain prov inces, running up hillsides of more than Il thousand feet of vertical eleva- tion. where it is often necessary to erect stone walls ten feet high in order to get twenty feet of level ground in which to plant their potatoes and bar ley. Our common potato is indigenous to South America and is the great article of diet in every Indian house hold. Each man holds from the com- munity certain agricultural lands, and raises the two crops which are essen- tial to his existence. namely, potatoes and cocoa. The potatoes are planted in the proper season by each man fol- lowed by his wife and all the children who can walk. The man turns over the ground with spade of remark ahle construction the handle fully six feet long: the woman and children follow. breaking up the humps of earth with crooked sticks or stone hammers iashed to wooden handles, snd dropping the seed.
 More important tlsan even the potato Is the coca, which is grown in the warm valleys of the Montana at an elevation less than 1. GOO feet. To be either contented and useful every h. dian must have an abundant supply of his coca The dried leaves. which have somewhat the taste of tea, are held in the mouth between the gum and the lip until the saliva has ex- tracted all the active and principle of the plant. when the supply is replen- ished. The effect of the coca habit is peculiar: It's votaries become more addicted to it's use than does the most inveterate chewer or smoker to his to- bacco, and with plenty of these leaves the Indians go uncomplainingly from twelve to fourteen hours without any food. The effect seems to be to abso- lutely allay hunger and even to stirnu- lata