The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-07-05
Sunday In La Paz

from church. They have prayer books in their hands, and also prayer mats. Many are accompanied by the men of the family. who wear high black silk hats, black clothes and black gloves. There are also foreigners for La Paz is a cosmopolitan city and it has all the queer classes of these Bolivian high lands.
 The most interesting of all are the Indians. We can see them everywhere buying and selling. Let us take look at the wares. Here Is woman with little pile of potatoes and two or three artichokes before her Close by Is an- other peddling onions, and little fur thud over a girl has for sale green roasting ears, peas, celery and lettuce On the opposite side of the street Is peddler who has flour in bags that hold half pint and farthur on are peddlers of fruit. Everything is sold by the pile, and you measure the pile by your eyes There are no weights and measures to tell you how much you are getting. You pay by the pile, and the piles are ex- ceedingly small. A half dozen little potatoes, a handful of flour or table spoon of salt makes up purchase, and the usual trade is equal to cents of our money. whole marketing could be crowded into a half peck doubt whether the average cooking stove of La Paz coul prepare much more at one time.
 And still the varity of vegetables and fruits and meats is great, and the qual- ity is especially fine. This high plat eau is the home of some of the chief crops of the world. It Is known that the potato came from the Andes and 1t is a question as to whether this is nor the birth place of our Indian corn. Bo- livia has maize twice as large any grown by our farmers. Some are Of bright yellow color, every grain as big as my thumb nail. Others are white, of twice the size of lima bean, and so floury that they could be mashed to a powder between two stones. Some Of the corn is of a mulberry color, other kinds are red or even jet black.
 As to the potatoes, they are red, white and yellow, and some are as pink as the toes of babies playing among them Some of the potatoes are as big as your nst' and other varieties not more than the size of a thimble. They are all sold by the pfe and a half dozen or 10 make up the average purchase.
 Nearly every potato seller has chuno among her wares. These are potatoes so treated that they look like bleached bones, and are almost as hard. When you break them apart you find them fibrous and tough They are ordinary potatoes so frozen and dried that they can be kept for years without spelling. The usual method of making chuno is to soak the raw potatoes in water, night after night, and then lay them out on the ground to freeze Then the skins are rubbed off by treading them with the bare feet. After that they are dried in the open air. Pota- toes so treated become as hard as stones. They form one of the chief foods of the Indians. who store them away for the winter They have to be soaked before Icing eaten They are served in the form of a stew. I have tasted them, but they are insipid and not at all appetizing.
 Going on with our walk through the market, we see many fruits and grains that are strange to our eyes. Here IS woman who sells quinua or the seeds or plant akin to our pig weed. The seeds are as large as grains of mustard, and as white as snow. They are sweet to the taste, and make an excellent gruel. There are also wheat, barley and oats, sold in in- fnitesimal quantities. There are sweet and sour lemons and white grapes as big as ripe damson plums. There are paltas or alligator pears of twice the size of those