The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-07-25

dllu Lldl ol ELlS AS AAldA GLos
 Short, coarse grass, of a peculiarly pale
 green color covers the plaza and
 springs up quickly among the stones of the cathedral steps and its wide plat form. Just outside the main door of
 the church is tall wooden cross, bear ing about it all the implements and ad- juncts of the gloomiest tragedy of his- tory. Jerched on top is a painted tin
 representative of the cock that crew to
 repentive Peter; there is a handful of | nails and the hammer that drove them;
 the sruel scourge, the spear, sponge
 and a pitcher supposed to contain
 wormwood. Even the dice with which the Jews rallied for His raiment is there, Cthe latter neatly hung at one
 side), showing by their position that
 double sixes'' won! Cold as it is, the l markets of Puno are held in the open air, the Quichuas occupying one plaza for the sale of their goods, the Aynaras 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, peas.
 beans, &c., piled up in little heaps on a
 blanket. Each heap has a fixed price,
 which never varies, whatever the fluc- tuations of the market. For example, | a heap of dried peas which you might hold in two hands, cost ten cents. If the market falls, the heap is enlarged and you get few peas more; if it rises you get smaller heap; but ten cents you must pay every time. None, of these women have the remotest idea of wholsaling their stock, or selling it in the lump. Should you ask one of them what she will take for all the peas on l hand, she is struck with consternation
 and cannot tell until the whole basket full has been sorted out into little piles and their value computed at ten cents per pile.
 The other day was much interested in observing from my window, which overlooks one of the plazas of Puno, a group of Quichua women, who sat from dawn till dark on the frosty ground, their llamas tethered behind them, l while they waited for possible custo- mers, but with nothing in the world to sell except some small punches of bar l ley. Young women and old were dressed exactly alike, in. short dresses l of dark blue flannel, spun, woven and dyed by themselves; the extremely full skirts shirred down over the hips, the short jackets of the same material meeting at the bosom, but showing the | white chemise beneath, the large sleeves gathered slightly at the wrist
 and hanging loosely in aesthetic style, 1 and large hats of the same blue flannel. elaborately trimmed with coarse red woolen serpentine braid. The fashion of the gowns as to shirring and sleeves was startlingly like the very latest mode, but has been in vogue here at least four hundred years, All the wo- men were barefooted, but looked per fectly comfortably and-though they did not talk much and seldom smiled seemed happy and contented. Hour at- ter hour they patiently squatted there, busiIy spinning wool of brightest hues, using hand-spindles. which they tWirled rapidly between the palms. During the day walked over to interview the la dies; but alas, they knew not a word of English or Spanish, and your cores pondent is as ignorant of Quiehua; so naturally conversation languishe6. But I learned from them one thing, viz, that feminine instincts are about alike the wide world over, whatever may be the environment. Every one of those unsrniling, strong-featured and indus trious women showed as much curiosi- ty and interest in the (to them) pecu- liar cut of my garments as I felt in theirs, and the adniring attention of each was instantly attracted to gilt tering 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, a third her poncho, and others pointed to their lIamas as possible mediums of ex-
 change. ...@
 But nobody came to buy their poor little punches of barley. and still they spun contentedly. At length, as. twi- light was deepening and winds blew
 chill over the bare feet. an old man strolled along and purchased the entire stock on the plaza, for which he paid precisely fifty-seven cents. I 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 purchases. A group of Indians in front of our house has been repairing bit of bro- ken pavement; and though the, work
 men numbered half a dozen and the place to be nended was scarcely two yards square, it took all day to do it. First they sat down on the ground and hollowed out the space with short handled wooden shovels that looked much like butter ladies, collecting the dirt in their blanket aprons. This they leisurely carried away somewhere, re- turning 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 pounding each one down with another stone of the same size. They have no use here for hammers or mal- lets or wheelbarrows.
 One day, when standardization had somewhat abated the terrors of sirrothe I made a pilgrimage through the town to it's most picturesque object - an an- tique arch on hill top, which had long commanded my admiration from dis tance. The most crowded street of Puno leads one up a sharp incline, lined on both sides with adobe cottages, whose inmates flocked to their doors in