Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
have an astronomical calendar for the average Bolivian, sowing and harvest time is sufficient
to see him through happily, and as to the hours, any fool knows whether it is day- or night-
time. Be it well understood that I am only considering the Indian and mestizo population of
the country, but then this amounts to about eighty or ninety per cent of the total.
Whenever time permitted, I never failed to visit the market places, where the essence of
local life can be seen. The market is about the only place where anybody ever seems to move,
excepting, of course, during fiestas. At the mercado coca leaves, spices, dyes, alcohol, grain,
woven goods, pottery, medical herbs, meat, etc., are sold at stalls or are merely spread out on
the ground on a dirty poncho. Bolivian markets always reminded me of eastern bazaars, and I
could watch for hours how the people bartered and argued without getting tired of it.
From Tupiza a railroad runs to La Paz, but I could not follow it because I knew that I
should find absolutely no fodder for the animals if I went that way, so I decided on another
route, picking our way through valleys and over mountains where I would at least find suffi-
cient food to see the horses through alive.
AllIndiansnearTupizaspeakQuichuaandIwasobligedtomakemyselfasmalldictionary
to be able to ask for the most necessary things, for only very few Indians understand Spanish.
They are very interesting people, but exceedingly primitive, especially so in the almost inac-
cessible districts hidden among the network of mountains.
Many still live in tribes, a cacique (chief) ruling them. These caciques are appointed by
tribal election and rarely leave their huts without carrying a staff which is adorned with silver
rings, these staves, being the insignia or badge of office. Caciques have a great deal of power
incertaintribes,andtheIndianssubmittothemandaccepttheirwordasfinal.Notunliketheir
Incaforefathers,manytribesliveoncommunisticprinciples;thus,whenthelandofamember
has to be worked, all men of the tribe assemble there, and with their wooden spades, resem-
bling oars, they dig the ground, chanting weird songs. Having tilled the land of one fellow-
tribesman, the men then proceed to the property of another, and thus they continue until every
man's land has been worked.
DuringthetimeoftheSpanishconquestandsubsequentoccupation,agoldtrailthatstarted
in Potosí led through these parts and down towards Tucuman in the Argentine. Whilst making
their hasty retreat, during the War of Emancipation, the Spaniards buried much treasure along
this trail. In many places I could see where treasure hunters had dug in search of a tapado , as
suchhiddentreasuresarecalledamongtheSpanish-speaking peopleinthisregion.Thenative
treasure hunters claim that where luces , or strange lights, appear during the night, wealth is
sure to be lying buried. I myself have seen such lights which I put down to escaping gases.
Some wriggled along the ground like luminous snakes, others stood upright like columns of
Grecian temples, and some looked like high coco palms, the light being of a greenish phos-
phoruslike colour. If ever a native sees one of these lights and is able to locate the exact spot
where it appeared, he drives a stake into the ground, or leaves some other mark in order to be
able to find the place next day, for he usually is far too superstitious to work there by night,
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