Evening star., 1899-03-04

landscape as the burial mounds do that of
China They are found in the cultivated
lands and in the pasture fields, where You
see long-horned cattle eating the grass
among them Sometimes they are only a
few feet apart and sometimes fifteen and
twenty and more. Each of these hills is an
ant village 1t is an ant catacomb popu-
lated by thousands of ants. There are as
many ant works below the surface as above
1t, and when field is to be cultivated the
first work is to get rid of the ants. The
only way to do this is to dig out the ant
hills and burn them Then only can the
the houses. They make their way up
through the brick floors and build sand
hills there so that a woman may go to bed
with house as clean as a Dutch kitchen
and awake the next morning to find her
floors covered with great cones of sand
in which are thousands of ants.
Country Houses.
The average country house, however. has
no floors except the earth. Nine-tenths of
the houses you see outside the city are huts
of poles, which are woven together and tied
with withes or strings. They have roofs
of thatch, which extend out at one side or
end, forming an open shed or room. Often
the shed is larger than the closed part. for
the latter is little more than the sleeping
place for the family. Many such houses
have orange trees about them and palm
trees waving over them. AS you pass them
,
walls of brown white. At first you think
the red ones are painted, but soon see that
the soil with which they are chinked is
red. This is the color of the best land of
Paraguay. The contrast of this rich red
and the soft velvet gray of the thatch is
harmonious, and the houses are exceedingly
picturesque. They are much like the coun-
try houses of Japan in this respect.
The larger farm houses sometimes have
two rooms with matched roof connect
ing them and an open space in the center
Such one is that on the big farm OF Dr.
Charles Chase a Boston man, who keeps
a drug store in the town of Villa Rica as
means of making money, and follows
photography as an amusement.
Life in the Interior.
The Paraguayans are very hospitable.
You can call at any hut in the country and
you will be made perfectly at home. You
may see lot of naked babies and some
naked children who are considerably older
than babies, for in the back districts boys
and girls up to the age of fourteen often
go naked.
If you can speak the Guarani language
the Indian tongue which is in common use
among the lower classeS-you will find the
people quite intelligent. though exceedingly
simple and ignorant of your world. You
will be given cigar to smoke and will be
asked to take part in the puchero or boiled
beef and vegetables which constitute the
usual meal. Your food will be cooked out
of doors. and the women may pound the
corn to powder in a wooden mortar before
they cook it for you. When you first enter
the hut you will probably be offered a glass
of brandy called cana. Every one drinks
and every village has its brandy dis
tillery. Indeed, it is estimated that every
man. woman and child in Paraguay could
drink two gallons of cana a year and not
exhaust the supply.
In visit of this kind you will learn that
the people contented with their. lot.
Most of the men are philosophers, who re-
gard foreigners as fools because they wear
their lives out working for money.
In villa Rica.
1 found some Americans in Villa Rica,
and my stay was made pleasant by them
in this out-of-the-way part of the world
One was our vice consul, Mr.. William Har-
rison, and another DR.. Charles Chase, the
druggist. A third American is CAPTAIN
Hunter Davidson, an unreconstructed south
erner. who left the United States at the
close of the civil war and finally got to
PARAGUAY. All these men are well-to-do
and much respected, Mr. Harrison and Dr.
Chase having married Paraguayans.
villa Rica is the biggest town in Para
quay outside of Asuncion. 1t has more va
cant lots than buildings, but its better
classes live in large one-story brick build
lngs rooted with red tiles which form very
comfortable homes One of the most in
teresting sights is the market, where there
are hundreds of sheeted women buyins and
selling There are hundreds of others go
ing to and fro with burdens upon their
heads. not few of whom are water car
r1ers bringing in water from the springs
back of the town. The vessels used are
OF all sorts, from -gourdS to Standard Oil
cans. FRANK G.. CARPENTER,