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National Geographic : 1964 Feb
Contents
Morochuco mothers wear the felt hats and bright homespun of the Indian, but a tendency to fair skin and blue eyes among them betrays their descent from Spanish conquistadors who settled in the highlands. Not uncommonly, mountain women-both Moro chuco and Indian-wear a new fedora atop the old. They seldom remove their hats except to sleep. These women's skirts are wet from walking in high, rain-damp grass. Little known, the Morochucos live by breeding horses, sheep, and dairy cattle in the mountainous Ayacucho area. They come to town only for fiestas or fairs. Hard-riding horsewomen show Morochuco familiarity with the saddle as they race into the home stretch at Ayacucho. Unshod Morochuco ponies are especially sure-footed, placing their feet like goats with an un usual vertical step. Centuries of breeding have adapted the hardy animals to Peru's high altitudes. an incredibly steep potato patch. We meas ured it: only 35 degrees from vertical. Why were his rows up and down? I won dered about this as I saw vertical rows all over Peru. An agricultural expert finally ex plained that as the Indians chop or hoe, they can back down the hill more easily than they can move sideways. Most of them know little about erosion and contour planting. Llamas Limit Loads to 100 Pounds Flocks of goats and sheep occasionally blocked our road; or arrogant llamas with little red tassels in their ears and sacks of potatoes carried like saddlebags. "The llama is stubborn," Elena remarked. "He will carry no more than a hundred pounds, and if you load on more he will lie down." Serrano women hurried along the road in a shuffling little trot, invariably bent beneath a load. Mantas, or shawls, slung over the back served as cradles and carryalls. Spindles twirled ceaselessly at their sides as the women spun the wool of alpaca and sheep. Some of the girls wore flowers in their hats-a sign meaning "Husband wanted!" And such colors! The sierra woman prides herself on bright-hued homespun skirts flar ing like square-dance dresses. 228 In the isolated colonial town of Huancave lica, by contrast, a few women wore solid black. Elena explained that here Inca tradi tion remains strong; these women still mourn the last Inca emperor, who died more than four centuries ago. By following the stewardess's advice on mountain sickness, I was able to avoid symp toms until we climbed to 14,000 feet to visit the Santa Barbara mercury mine near Huan cavelica. There we all found ourselves sleepy and lethargic. Even taking out my notebook to scratch a few notes was an effort; my pen moved with annoying slowness. "That's all right," the mine manager said with a grin. "It takes me five days to recuper ate when I come up from sea level." Santa Barbara was prized by the Spanish kings of the 17th century because its mercury was useful to amalgamate, or "pick up," silver and gold from ore. Today this mine is the larg est producer of mercury in South America. We watched hard-hatted miners in an open pit digging out lumps of reddish ore. Work men wearing masks against poisonous fumes heated the ore in furnaces to vaporize the mercury, then condensed it to the familiar silvery liquid. I undertook to lift a gallon and-a-half bucket of the stuff. It didn't look
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