Near the Santa Rosa trees is a tall bell-tower.  The sight of a picturesque belfry with four or five bells of different sizes hanging each in its respective window makes a strong appeal.  It is quite otherwise on Sunday mornings when these same bells, “out of tune with themselves,” or actually cracked, are all rung at the same time.  The resulting clangor and din is unforgettable.  I presume the Chinese would say it was intended to drive away the devils—­and surely such noise must be “thoroughly uncongenial even to the most irreclaimable devil,” as Lord Frederick Hamilton said of the Canton practices.  Church bells in the United States and England are usually sweet-toned and intended to invite the hearer to come to service, or else they ring out in joyous peals to announce some festive occasion.  There is nothing inviting or joyous about the bells in southern Peru.  Once in a while one may hear a bell of deep, sweet tone, like that of the great bell in Cuzco, which is tolled when the last sacrament is being administered to a dying Christian; but the general idea of bell-ringers in this part of the world seems to be to make the greatest possible amount of racket and clamor.  On popular saints’ days this is accompanied by firecrackers, aerial bombs, and other noise-making devices which again remind one of Chinese folkways.  Perhaps it is merely that fundamental fondness for making a noise which is found in all healthy children.

On Sunday afternoon the plaza of Santa Rosa was well filled with Quichua holiday-makers, many of whom had been imbibing freely of chicha, a mild native brew usually made from ripe corn.  The crowd was remarkably good-natured and given to an unusual amount of laughter and gayety.  For them Sunday is truly a day of rest, recreation, and sociability.  On week days, most of them, even the smaller boys, are off on the mountain pastures, watching the herds whose wool brings prosperity to Santa Rosa.  One sometimes finds the mountain Indians on Sunday afternoon sodden, thoroughly soaked with chicha, and inclined to resent the presence of inquisitive strangers; not so these good folk of Santa Rosa.

------
Figure

Indian Alcaldes at Santa Rosa
------

------
Figure

Native Druggists in the Plaza of Sicuani
------

To be sure, the female vendors of eggs, potatoes, peppers, and sundry native vegetables, squatting in two long rows on the plaza, did not enjoy being photographed, but the men and boys crowded eagerly forward, very much interested in my endeavors.  Some of the Indian alcaldes, local magistrates elected yearly to serve as the responsible officials for villages or tribal precincts, were very helpful and, armed with their large, silver-mounted staffs of office, tried to bring the shy, retiring women of the market-place to stand in a frightened, disgruntled, barefooted group before the camera.  The women were dressed in the customary tight bodices, heavy woolen skirts, and voluminous