The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-05-01

nome. The chief animals used to carry
freight are donkeys, mules and horses,
though the latter are mostly for riding. The
ways across the desert are bride paths, and
the people go long distances. Sometimes
one of these moving sand hills covers up the
paths, a storm spreads the sand over them
and travellers are lost. No stranger could
travel over this desert without a guide, who
generally directs his course by the stars at
night and during the day by the wind,
which always blows from the south. l can
imagine no more terrible place in which to
lose your bearings than this desert. You
might travel for days without finding any
thing to eat or drink. You would see the
long lines of skeletons of animals which
had been lost, upon some Of which the gall
linasos or buzzards might be still picking
at their bones. 1 passed a cord or so of
human skulls, many bones of donkeys and
cattle during a recent ride across the des-
ert. and at one point stopped by a pile of
skeletons which had been dug up from an
Inca ruin and left there to bleach.
1t is a curious thing that there are no
bad smells on the desert. Flesh does not
rot, and you could leave a dead chicken in
your back yard at Pacasmayo and never
get a smell. The air is so dry that it sucks
all Of the juice out of anything left on
the sands. A short distance north Of here
is the valley of the Piura river, which has
the same surroundings. Not long since a
traveller, in passing through this valley.
saw an open coffin in the cemetery, and
within it the body of a dead priest clothed
in nothing but a purple shirt and white
cotton drawers. The body was lying alone
out under the hot sun of the tropics, and
the man, who was a devout Catholic Of
fered to bury it, expressing great indigna-
ton that one of the fathers should be so
treated The priest of the town, however,
refused to permit anything of the kind.
saying: my dear sir, you do not under
stand. That is the body of my friend.
which / have put out here to dry, so that
I may send him to his family in Guaya-
quill"
AMONG THE RUINS.
This dryness of the air is the cause Of
the mummies Of Peru being found in such
good preservation. There are plenty of
mummies to be had here, and every now
and then one is dug up in the excavation
of the ruined cities of the Indians, who had
possession Of the country when the Span
iards came. The mummies are found in a
sitting position wrapped in cloth and tied
up with strings. All about here I see the
vestiges of the works of the Incas. They
had a civilization on the average higher
than that of Peru to-day. They cultivated
a vast deal more Of the land, and their
irrigation works included thousands of acres
which are now desert. 1 went, the other
day, up through the desert to the old Inca
ruins of Jequetepeque. 1 doubt whether
any of you have ever heard of them. Still
they mark the site of what must have
once been a populous city. They are sit
mt a6 hiph nm ahoUa fha lands which are
now irrigated by the little river which flows
near them. Just below the ruins are the
remains Of what were once Inca fortified
lions, great mounds of sun-dried bricks,
the ruins Of which are still about 200 feet
high. The remains of the city are in the
heart of the desert. They cover several
hundred acres, and the walls, in many
places, higher than your head, still stand,
while within them the outlines of the
houses can be plainly seen. In the center
of the city there is a large mound, probably
the site of an Inca palace, or of a temple
devoted to the vestal virgins of the sun. 1
rode my horse up to the top of this mound,
and in my minds eye could easily repeople
the ruined streets below me. All about
me were bits of pottery, the broken dishes
Of that great nation of the past. Here you
could see the outlines of a square and there
the remains of a large house, which may
have been the residence of one of the rich
nobility from whom the Spaniards got their
gold.
Notwithstanding this part of the Pacific
coast has had no rain for a long while, the
people are expecting it this year. Do you
know why? 1t is because it does rain here
almost regularly every seven years, and
the last big shower was in 1891. There was
a shower seven years before that, and I
am told that about every seven, eight or
nine years there is a period of a week or
more that the rain pours down, and as it
touches the earth vegetation almost in
simultaneously springs up. Almost within a
night the desert becomes covered with
green. There are great fields of green grass,
and flowers by the thousands come out In
blossom. There are plants which we
have only in hot houses and flowers
more brilliant than any we know. This
vegetation often lasts but a few days. 1t
has, however, been known to continue a
month, and at it's height the cattle are
driven from the irrigated valleys out upon
the desert to feed. The seeds Of all sorts
Of plants, trees and flowers seem to keep
perfectly in the hot, dry sand, and to be
ready to jump into life if touched with
moisture. l doubt, in fact, If there is a
more I6TIlle SOIL on LHO SlOD6 lHdn that VI
the desert of Peru. 1t seems to be fully
equal to that which borders the Nile val
ley, and wherever it can be irrigated it
produces in many instances two crops a
year. Planting goes on here all the year
around in the irrigated valleys, and I see
corn dropped in the same neighborhood
where it is almost ripe enough for husking.
FARMING IN NORTHERN PERU.
The only cultivated portions of the coast
region Of Peru are, as 1 nave stated, the
little valleys of the rivers fed by the An
dean rains and SHOWS. There are on the
coast Of Peru about forty of these
valleys, which the water has cut out Of
the desert. AT the end of many of them
you will find little towns which form the
ports of the country, and in the interior
there are numerous villages and small cit
les. The capital of Peru, Lima pronounced
Lee-ma), is in the valley of the Rimac
river. Paita, where we first stopped on our
way south, is the port for the valley of the
Piura river. and here we are near the
mouth of the Jequetepeque (Heketepeke)
river. AT the different ports north of here
we took on thousands of bags of rice, boxes
of tobacco and quantities of skins and
hides. AS 1 write this / can see droves of