rtitude ere they yield to the pressing
invitation of the hospitable Serrano, and taste the proffered nectar.

When it is wished to make the chicha particularly strong and well
flavored, it is poured into an earthen jar along with several pounds of
beef. This jar is made perfectly air-tight, and buried several feet deep
in the ground, where it is left for the space of several years. On the
birth of a child it is customary to bury a _botija_ full of chicha,
which, on the marriage of the same child, is opened and drunk. This
chicha has a very agreeable flavor, but is so exceedingly potent, that a
single glass of it is sufficient to intoxicate a practised
chicha-drinker, or, as they say in the country, a _chichero_.

Every village in the Sierra has its own tutelary saint, whose festival
is celebrated with great solemnity. Bull-fights and dances constitute
the principal diversions on these occasions. These dances are relics of
the _Raymi_ or monthly dances, by which the Incas used to mark the
divisions of time; and they are among the most interesting customs
peculiar to these parts of Peru. The dancers wear dresses similar to
those worn by the ancient Peruvians when they took part in the _Raymi_.
Their faces and arms are painted in various colors, and they wear
feather caps and feather ponchos. They have bracelets and anklets, and
they are armed with clubs, wooden swords, and bows and arrows. Their
music, too, is also similar to that of their forefathers. Their
instruments consist of a sort of pipe or flute made of reed, and a drum
composed simply of a hoop with a skin stretched upon it. To the
inharmonious sound of these instruments, accompanying monotonous Quichua
songs, the dances commence with those solemn movements with which the
Incas used to worship the sun: they then suddenly assume a more joyous
character, and at last change to the wild war-dance, in which the mimic
contest, stimulated by copious libations of chicha, frequently ends in a
real fight. In the larger towns, where the Mestizo portion of the
population predominates, these dances are discouraged, and in course of
time they will probably be entirely discontinued, though they are
scrupulously adhered to by the Indians.

On festival days, bull-fights constitute the most favorite popular
diversion. In the Sierra this barbarous sport is conducted with even
more recklessness and cruelty than in the _Corridas_ of Lima. Every
occasion on which an entertainment o