of mules. Travelers wonder why they find so many bad eggs on the sea-coast, and it arises from the custom to pass them through the country, as current money, for some time before they are sent away to market. Three eggs will purchase a glass of brandy or sixpence worth of anything in the markets. The Mestizos are the shoemakers, blacksmiths, and saddlers of the country, and lord it over the honest Indians. Inaja is one of the great valleys amid the snowy peaks of Peru, and has a population of about two thousand five hundred inhabitants. The houses are one story, built of unburned bricks, with tile roofs. Its streets are well paved, and a neat little whitewashed church ornaments the plaza. The snowy peaks of the Cordilleras are in full view from the town. No section of Peru is more densely populated than the valley of Inaja. Here, close under the mountains, on the east side, stands the little town of Ocopa, with its convents and schools. From this point Roman Catholic missionaries have been sent in different directions to the forests and plains, at great risk of life and comforts, for the conversion of the savage red man. | Some have been successful, others murdered, and their settlements destroyed by fire, and some never tire! The Inaja River, rising to the north of Tarma, flows in a serpentine course through the whole length of this elevated valley, and creeping through the Andes, suddenly and rapidly rushes by the Ucayali and Amazon to the Atlantic Ocean. Huancavelica, a Peruvian town celebrated for its quicksilver mines, has a population of eight thousand, and is situated in a deep ravine, amid a cluster of lofty peaks. It is the capital of the department, and was named by the Incas, boasts of six churches, an hospital, and college, in which are taught physics, chemistry, and mineralogy. A cathedral stands on the side of the Cinnebar Mountain, which contains the famous quicksilver mine of San Barbara. It is truly a wonderful place, and its entrance resembles a railroad tunnel. The eternal glaciers are seen at the very door, six hundred feet below the top of the mountain; icicles hanging over head, with sheets of ice under foot. Old brick-colored columns support the ceilings of the mine as they are excavated by the workmen, who, with hammer and chisel, are literally honey-combing the mighty Andes. Turn which way the explorer may, he finds a road to travel. In the midst of this dark, wide, and deep excavation, San Rosario Church is reached, rotunda-shaped, with a ceiling one hundred feet high. Over the altar is carved, in solid cinnabar, the Virgin Mary, with the Infant Saviour in her arms. As the Indian miners pass, they turn, and kneeling under their heavy loads of ore, cross themselves, offer a short prayer, and proceed onward by the light always burning at the sacred altar. The mining In dians seldom leave these gloomy regions, but when the church bell invites, they attend its call, and pray for protection from the dangers to which they are exposed. On Sunday evenings they meet their fellowlaborers in this sacred rotunda for religious services. The peak of this mountain is said to be almost a solid mass of quicksilver ore, and this is carried out in bags of raw hide, on the backs of boys; at the furnaces near by, men break the ore into little pieces, and the women make small cakes of the dust. These are heated for eight or ten hours, when the condensed | generally old women, seating themselves vapor falls in quicksilver upon the floor. When washed and dried, it is sold here for one dollar per pound, and sent to the silver mines of Peru. Huancavelica lies on the route from Lima to Cusco, and distant seventy-three miles, and although this is not the shortest road to the coast, still it is the best, and to the best seaport. Freights arrive from Lima in ten days; mules travel the distance with mail boxes in six. Chica is the favorite drink of the Peruvian Indians, and is thus made: A party, around a wooden trough with the maize, each of them takes a mouthful, mashing the grain, and then casts it back into the vessel. The mass, with water, is next boiled in large coppers, fermented in earthen jars, when it is sold by the brewers. It is an intoxicating drink, but the Indians say very healthful. Chupe is the national dish of the Peruvians, and may be made almost of anything related to soups, but is usually composed of mutton, eggs, rice, and potatoes, all highly seasoned with pepper and spices. Lieutenant Gordon, in his explorations of these regions, met a man in a poncho and traveling dress by the name of Sage, with an Indian girl behind his saddle, and although from one of these mountain valleys, he spoke plain English, and was born in New Haven. He was proprietor of a circus company, but had now been many years in South America. Often, he had thought of returning to New England, "but nobody knows me now," he said. "Years ago I heard of the changes there, and don't believe I should know my native place. I have adopted the manners and customs of these people. I have worked in this country for years, and am worth nothing at last." He had navigated the Mississippi in a canoe. Every now and then his English ran off into Spanish, when he would beg pardon for not speaking his native language as well as when he was a boy in his own land. clusters of the evergreen cactus, and the partridge sends forth her well-known call from the barley-fields. One day you are shivering, high up the mountains amid a midwinter's snow-storm; the next, you pass people seated by shady brooks in their midsummer costume. The arrieros, or mule drivers, are an important class of the people. Whenever they meet with difficulties, their rule is to take a seat, and pulling from the pocket a small piece of paper, or a corn husk, they light a cigaros, and consider the case in so cool a manner, while the smoke is curling upward. Unless you saw the mule and baggage through the broken bridge, or down a precipice, you would not know anything had happened to the train. The Peruvian mail from Lima to the southern departments is carried in two small hide boxes, on the back of a mule, with a swallow-tailed red and white flag flying from a short pole fastened between the trunks. Well mounted and armed, the conductor rides after the mail, while the horn. Letters and remittances are safely sent by this conveyance. During this conversation, down the sides of the mountain slowly advanced Sage's traveling circus. A little dark Guayaquil girl, a neat rider, accompanied a fine-look-mounted arriero trots ahead, blowing a ing Peruvian, whose fat wife, with sunburned face, followed. Then came a pony and his playmate, a dog, with a beautiful Peruvian girl, servants, and a long train of baggage mules. At the same moment, the Indians were gathered at an old church in the valley, to celebrate the Saint's Day of San lago. Attired in green costumes, they marched in procession, with drums and fifes, through crowds of women dressed in all colors; some were masked in cow's horns and black, others wore cocked hats and gold-laced coats, while the young Creoles dashed about on horseback. The master of the place had just returned from church, a little intoxicated, and the whole crowd was high from chica. After morning prayers there was a grand procession, headed by the priest. Such is Romanism in the Andes. The scene was beautiful and strange; the church below, and the people lining the road of the valley, while drums mingled their rattling with the shouts and singing of the women. As the traveler descends the eastern slope of the Andes, the scenery changes rapidly with the climate; humming-birds of the most brilliant plumage buzz among the flowers; potatoes, beans, figs, and peaches are for sale by the road-side, and Indian girls offer their chica drink. The quiet little ring-dove builds her nest in the There are robbers among these mountain heights, who make their own terms when meeting travelers at night, in lonesome, uninhabitable roads. Their modes of attack differ; when they see the party, and know the number, in the daytime, they boldly make their demands. If in doubt, their guide comes alone, inquires about the travelers' health, requests a light for his cigaros, and expresses a wish to make purchases. Then he returns with a report of his discoveries; and whether the party is attacked or not, the chance is that the mules at pasture will be stolen during the night. The robbers use short, thick clubs, knives, and slung stone balls, but seldom firearms, which they greatly dread. Intent on plunder or murder, the savage, the negro, or the Peruvian robber may approach boldly with his dagger, but the click of a revolver makes him disappear quickly. In some of these valleys are sugar plantations, where the Indians may be seen, with hoe in hand, leading the snowy waters of the Andes between the rows of the young plants, with their rich and yellow leaves. With this beautiful arrangement of nature, he plants and garners a crop every year; and destitute of it in these regions both man and plant would pine and perish. A little further up upon the mountain side there is another climate, with its dwarf clusters of cactæ, rocks, dry bunches of grass, a dusty soil, deserted almost by animal life, excepting the green lizard, now and then seen basking in the scorching rays of the sun. Ascending a little higher, the surface becomes covered with a lead-colored grass, greener as the eye looks upward; when suddenly a streak of dark earth is capped by the purest white snow, until the prospect is entirely bounded by pyramids of eternal whiteness. Such is the glare of the sun and its reflection on the snow here, that, for the protection of the eyes, it becomes necessary to wear green spectacles, or vails. Without this precaution, a very painful inflammation, called suerumpe, is often the result, which the Creole population, and especially the gentlemen, dread. How wonderful, and gracious, and wise are the provisions of Divine Providence in the varieties for human sustenance! In New Guinea, the native rubs the sago palm to a powder, and by a hot mold bakes it into a hard cake; two and a half pounds will suffice a man for a whole day. The Chili pine, the splendid Auricaria imbricata of the Andes and Patagonia, from the fruit of a single tree will maintain eighteen persons per annum. Its fruit is the large seed of the cones, and as rich in gluten as the common beech, chestnuts, or acorns. Humboldt calculated that the one thousand square feet which would yield four hundred and sixty-two pounds of potatoes, or thirty-eight of wheat, would, in less time, produce four thousand pounds of bananas! The real bread - fruit- tree (Artocarpus incisa) of the South Seas and Indian Archipelago is a beautiful object, bearing eight or nine months, in close succession. Its fruit is cooked in various ways, and three trees will support a man eight months. Upon these table-lands of Chili and Peru, at the immense elevation of thirteen thousand feet above the sea, and where barley and rye refuse to ripen, the natives grow their quiona, and before the arrival of the Spaniards, thousands amid these elevated regions lived principally on this small seeded bread grain, whose composition is nearly that of oatmeal. Without this providential plant, the plateau of the everlasting Andes would be only a cattle pasture, like the summer fields of the beautiful Alpine valleys! FOR HUNGARY. NOR almost a century after their first appearance the Magyars were the terror of Europe. In their nomadic wanderings westward they had overwhelmed the Bulgarians and Moravians; the Slaves and the Daco-Romans had been driven to the mountains, and hardly had Arpad pitched his tents on the plains of Hungary before Germany, France, and Italy felt the terrible force of the Magyar invasions. The appearance of the host was, indeed, such as to excite terror even in those barbarous times. On horseback, always on horseback, and armed with bows, lances and sabers, the wild chivalry of Asia marched before a confused multitude of women and children. Then followed immense herds of cattle, and rude wagons, some of which were already filled with booty, while others awaited the fruits of future victories. The terror-stricken nations of Europe recognized in the grimvisaged Magyars the descendants of the ' scourge of God." They were regarded as the bands of Gog and Magog, spoken of in the Apocalypse, whose advent was immediately to precede the destruction of the world. 66 Germany at length rose in a mass against the ravagers of Europe, one hundred thousand of whom were slain before the walls of Augsburg, in the year 955. Having been thus arrested in their course of conquest, the Magyars returned to their encampments on the plains of Hungary, and left off the adventurous expeditions which had brought them in contact with the more civilized nations of the West. From rude warriors they soon becarne shepherds and tillers of the soil, learning the elements of agriculture and industry from the prisoners they had taken in war and from the original inhabitants of the country. The religion which the Magyars brought from Asia was a species of pantheistic naturalism. They worshiped the air, water, and especially fire, which was personified in the sun. They addressed hymns to the earth, whence comes the harvest and the flowers, the useful iron, and the sparkling diamond. They admitted in their faith the dualism of the Persians, the eternal conflict of Ormuzd and Ahriman, or the spirits of good and evil Sorcerers and astrologers obtained oracular credence. To the Supreme God, embracing in himself all other divinities, to "Magyarok-Istene," the god of the Magyars, they never sacrificed human beings, but immolated upon his altars pure white horses and other animals. Their respect for the dead proves that they believed in the resurrection of the soul. As many enemies as the valiant Magyar had slain in battle, so many servants would he have in the future world. Faithful to the religion of their ancestors, they continued to worship their Asiatic god, without, however, any decided aversion to the practices of Christianity, for the vanquished among them were permitted to cherish, without molestation, the faith of Jesus. But how were the Hungarians converted to Christianity, and by whom? The Greeks, the Latins, and the Poles, all claim to have made the first baptism. Here is the Catholic legend: When the victors of Augsburg imposed peace upon the Magyars it was stipulated that Italian and German missionaries might go and preach among the latter without opposition, and that the priests might build churches and establish convents. Pilgrim was charged with the command of the pious expedition, and under him were Bruno and Wolfgang, two lieutenants selected by the pope. The three apostles set forth, charged with extraordinary powers, and followed by an army of monks and priests. Their success was tardy. A small band of neophytes was gathered, but the chiefs had to be converted before the people would embrace the new religion. Geyza, the leader of the Magyars, was not hostile to the movement. The "glad tidings" had only to be delivered in the proper manner in order to meet with ready acceptance. It so happened that Geyza was the willing slave of a beautiful female named Beleknegini, who, however, was not his lawful wife. Though a bold Amazon, who, without bit or saddle, could tame the |