st the
crops, the laborers were ordered by the Incas to go forth in huge
family parties. They lessened the hardships of farm labor by village
gossip and choral singing, interspersed at regular intervals with
rest periods, in which quantities of chicha quenched the thirst and
cheered the mind.

Habits of community work are still shown in the Andes. One often sees a
score or more of Indians carrying huge bundles of sheaves of wheat or
barley. I have found a dozen yoke of oxen, each a few yards from the
other in a parallel line, engaged in ploughing synchronously small
portions of a large field. Although the landlords frequently visit
Lima and sometimes go to Paris and New York, where they purchase
for their own use the products of modern invention, the fields are
still cultivated in the fashion introduced three centuries ago by the
conquistadores, who brought the first draft animals and the primitive
pointed plough of the ancient Mediterranean.

Crops at La Raya are not confined to potatoes. Another food plant,
almost unknown to Europeans, even those who live in Lima, is canihua,
a kind of pigweed. It was being harvested at the time of our visit
in April. The threshing floor for canihua is a large blanket laid
on the ground. On top of this the stalks are placed and the flail
applied, the blanket serving to prevent the small grayish seeds from
escaping. The entire process uses nothing of European origin and has
probably not changed for centuries.

We noticed also quinoa and even barley growing at an elevation of
14,000 feet. Quinoa is another species of pigweed. It often attains
a height of three to four feet. There are several varieties. The
white-seeded variety, after being boiled, may be fairly compared
with oatmeal. Mr. Cook actually preferred it to the Scotch article,
both for taste and texture. The seeds retain their form after being
cooked and "do not appear so slimy as oatmeal." Other varieties of
quinoa are bitter and have to be boiled several times, the water
being frequently changed. The growing quinoa presents an attractive
appearance; its leaves assume many colors.

As we went down the valley the evidences of extensive cultivation,
both ancient and modern, steadily increased. Great numbers of old
terraces were to be seen. There were many fields of wheat, some of them
growing high up on the mountain side in what are called temporales,
where, owing to the steep slope, there is little effort at tillage or
c