diet. Incidentally guinea pigs do not come
from Guinea and are in no way related to pigs--Mr. Ellis Parker
Butler to the contrary notwithstanding! They belong rather to the
same family as rabbits and Belgian hares and have long been a highly
prized article of food in the Andes of Peru. The wild species are
of a grayish brown color, which enables them to escape observation
in their natural habitat. The domestic varieties, which one sees
in the huts of the Indians, are piebald, black, white, and tawny,
varying from one another in color as much as do the llamas, which
were also domesticated by the same race of people thousands of years
ago. Although Anglo-Saxon "folkways," as Professor Sumner would say,
permit us to eat and enjoy long-eared rabbits, we draw the line at
short-eared rabbits, yet they were bred to be eaten.

I am willing to admit that this was the first time that I had ever
knowingly tasted their delicate flesh, although once in the capital
of Bolivia I thought the hotel kitchen had a diminishing supply! Had
I not been very hungry, I might never have known how delicious a roast
guinea pig can be. The meat is not unlike squab. To the Indians whose
supply of animal food is small, whose fowls are treasured for their
eggs, and whose thin sheep are more valuable as wool bearers than as
mutton, the succulent guinea pig, "most prolific of mammals," as was
discovered by Mr. Butler's hero, is a highly valued article of food,
reserved for special occasions. The North American housewife keeps a
few tins of sardines and cans of preserves on hand for emergencies. Her
sister in the Andes similarly relies on fat little cuys.

After lunch, Condore and Mogrovejo divided the extensive rolling
countryside between them and each rode quietly from one lonesome farm
to another, looking for men to engage as bearers. When they were
so fortunate as to find the man of the house at home or working in
his little chacra they greeted him pleasantly. When he came forward
to shake hands, in the usual Indian manner, a silver dollar was
un-suspectingly slipped into the palm of his right hand and he was
informed that he had accepted pay for services which must now be
performed. It seemed hard, but this was the only way in which it was
possible to secure carriers.

During Inca times the Indians never received pay for their labor. A
paternal government saw to it that they were properly fed and clothed
and either given abundant opportunity to p