Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1914-07-05

10y the pile and half dozen or ten make
up the average purchase.
Nearly every Dotatoe seller has chuno
among hey wares. These are potatoes so
treated that they !ook like bleached bones.
and are almost rs hard. When you
break them apart You find them fibrous
and tough. They are ordinary potatoes
so frozen and dried that they can he
kept for years without spelling The
usual method of making cnuno is to soak
the raw POTATOES in water. night after
night and then lay them out the
ground /" freeze. Then the skins are
rubbed on by treadinS them with
the bare feet. After that they are dried
In the open air. Potatoes so treated be
come rs hard as stones. They form one
of the chief foods of the Indians. who
store them away for the winter. They
have TO he soaked before being eaten.
They are served in the form OF stew
! have tasted them. but they are insipid
ana not at all appetizing
Gong ON with our walk through thu
market. see many fruits and grains
that are strange TO car ives Here is a
woman who sells quinua or the seeds
OF plant akin % our mig weed. The
seeds arr as large as grains Of mus
tara. and rs white as snoa They are
sweet TO the taste. and make an excel
dent Cruel. There are also wheat. bar
ley and oats sold in rnfinitesmal
quantities There are sweet and
sour len...ns ANA white grapes as big as
ripe Gamson picms. Th"r. are paltas or
alligator pears OF twice the size OF those
that come 10 our markets. and the
i'lcat. a fruit ;ha: lochs like a mann
mott bean pod 1t has green skin. and
Of white spun silk, which when cold
tastes like a finely favored ice cream.
There are also oranges. aprcots and
bananas. as wel as tunas. the fruit of
The cactus All o. these come from the
rungas valley. which Is reached through
the break in the great basin in which La
Paz lies. Going doen through that
break you rapidly descend until you
reach a tropical climate. where the vege-
tation is dense and where there are
bananas and rineapples. royal palms and
wild cotton trees. There also coffee
plantations and gardens in which the
coca leaves are raised to give the In
dams their favorte chew. Bolivia has
every product under the sun. and its
tropical valleys supply the highlands
with fruit.
Some or these Indians have come
from those regions. Here is one won-
an selling coffee beans. fresh from the
grove; next her is one with a pile Of
artichokes. while further on third is
peddlins sections OF sugar cane. half as
long as my arm. She sells them for .
cents d stick.
II is interesting to watch the traffic.
which moves in and OFT through the
crowds. Nearly every Woman has a load
on her back. and there are Indian men
carrying baskets. bags and bundles
weighing as much as themselves. The
most of the marketing is brought in
upon donkeys. and not little on lanas.
Here comes a drove OF ilamas up a side
street. Their heads are in the air. and
their ears stand up like those of a fox
terrier. They turn their heads this way
and that. and are evidently surprised at
the strange things about them. Each
llama is loaded with a bag OF freight.
tied or to its back with ropes that pass
over the back and under the belly.
Those liamas are bringing III fuel. They
are carrying. not wood nor oil. but
dried llama manure. Each beast has
seventy-fve or eighty pounds of this
stuff its back. and before nightfall
the trainload will have been distributed
throughout the city from kitchen to kit
chen.
All OF the vegetables and meats in this
marked will be cooked with llama ma
nure. There is no other fuel used in La
Paz. and that notwithstanding il is
city OF S0.ao inhabitants. One reason for
this is the great cost of coal. The freight
rates from the coast from where all the
coal comes. are $3.50 ton, and this
brings the price of that fuel here 20
abount go per ton. or $50 gold. This
makes ii prohibtive for ordinary use.
and the result is there is not a furnace
or hot-water heating plant in the Whole
city.
The llama fuel is used much like char
coal 1t is burned in small stoves. II
gives forth but little smoke and no
sparks 1t is safe fuel. La Paz sell
dom has fires which do any great dam
age and. indeed. l am tod that only a
few buildings have been burnt down
within the past fifty years. The houses
never catch fire from the chimneys. Tor
the simple reason that they have no
chimneys Moreover. they are buit OF
mud bricks with trimmings of stone
rather than wood. and il is difficult 10
start a fire in them.
FRANK C. CARPENTER