en dried, is the principal
food of the inhabitants of the Puna, particularly of the mining
population. The dried beef is called _Charqui_, and the mutton is called
_Chalona_. The bulls graze in the remote Altos, and most of them are
reserved for the bull fights in the Sierra villages. As they seldom see
a human being they become exceedingly wild; so much so that the herdsmen
are often afraid to approach them. In the daytime they roam about marshy
places, and at nightfall they retire for shelter beneath some
overhanging rock. These animals render travelling in many parts of the
Puna extremely dangerous, for they often attack people so suddenly as to
afford no time for defence. It is true they usually announce their
approach by a deep bellow; but the open plain seldom presents any
opportunity for escape. On several occasions a well-aimed shot alone
saved me from the attack of one of these ferocious bulls.

The walls of the haciendas are of rough unhewn stone. They are divided
into large square rooms, always damp, cold, and uninhabitable. Beneath
the straw roofs there usually hang long rows of the stuffed skins of
foxes; for every Indian who kills an old fox receives, by way of
reward, a sheep, and for a young one a lamb. The Cholos are therefore
zealous fox-hunters, and they may possibly succeed in altogether
extirpating that animal which in some districts is so numerous as to
be a perfect scourge.

As the sheep, even in the dry season, find pasture more easily than the
horned cattle, they are left during the whole year in the higher parts
of the Puna, under the care of Indian shepherds. At night they are
driven into _cerales_, large square roofless buildings, and are guarded
by dogs. The shepherds make a practice of every year burning the dry
grass of the Puna, in order to improve the growth of the fodder. A Puna
fire does not, however, present the imposing spectacle of the prairie
fires, as described by travellers in North America, possibly because the
Puna straw is shorter, and is always somewhat damp.

The dwellings of the shepherds are built in the same rude style which
characterizes all the huts in the Puna, and they impress the European
traveller with a very unfavorable notion of the intelligence of the
people. The architecture of these huts consists in laying down some
large stones, in a circle of about eight or ten feet in diameter, by
way of a foundation. These stones are covered with earth or turf, and
then