portant from the point of view of this paper.) As nearly as I can judge from my own observations and from some figures given me by two anthropologically inclined parish priests in different parts of the region, the pure or nearly pure Indians form about 50 per cent. of the poulation, the mestizos form 35 per cent., the pure or nearly pure whites 10 per cent. and the other races 5 per cent.

The pure or nearly pure Indians fall, on occupational grounds, into two categories. The larger is that which devotes itself to agriculture, and the smaller is that which follows the sea, gaining a livelihood from fishing or as sailors. The agricultural category dwells for the most part on the huge landed estates into which the valleys and the intervening deserts are

THE CHIEF PLAZA, CATACAOS, PIURA VALLEY. The tower to the right is all that is left of the parish church, destroyed by an earthquake some years ago.

largely divided. They act as laborers for the owners of the estates, receiving a wage of about a sol or a sol and a half a day (fifty cents equals one sol). The working day is about ten hours, the working time being arranged so as to permit of a siesta during the mid-day heat. Each family has its own house and lot. There seems to be no lack of food, and the relations between the laborers and the employers seem to be genial.

The state of the Indians, however, is by no means idyllic. Their houses are too often merely wretched huts made of old corn-stalks, canes or gasoline-cans. The people have in general no sense of how to keep either their persons or their houses clean. Vermin and animals roam freely all over the hut, often dropping in close proximity to the food. The cooking utensils

are usually gourds or old tin cans and are usually in a condition of remarkable filthiness. There is absolutely no privacy in these houses and a large family often sleeps indiscriminately huddled together. It is not to be wondered at that diseases and bad habits are quickly communicated under these conditions. Clothes are often merely dirty rags.

On some haciendas, and in some Indian households, the situation is far better. The houses in some of the villages on the haciendas of Sojo and Macacará, in the Chira Valley, are a

guren.

great deal cleaner and more spacious than those of which I have spoken above. They are also better built, and the people have good clothes, which they change quite often, keeping themselves reasonably clean into the bargain. On a number of other haciendas similar conditions prevail, the haciendas in the Chira Valley being, on the whole, better eonditioned than those in the two other valleys. This is probably due to its greater accessibility and to the fact that absentee landlordism is here at a minimum.

The maritime Indians live, for the most part, on land which has no formal possessor. They work for themselves or for the headman of their community, not for a white employer. Their houses are of the most primitive description; driftwood, old bits

A COTTON FIELD ON THE HACIENDA SAN YSIDRO, NEAR SECHURA, PIURA VALLEY. This hacienda, belonging to the Perez-Vasquez family, is managed by Don Victor Chavez, and is one of the best of the smaller haciendas in the Piura Valley.

of tin cans, bundles of dried grass and similar material being used in combination. Chullillache, a small port, or rather roadstead, near Sechura in the Piura Valley, is a typical community of this description. Colan, between Payta and the mouth of the Chira River, is another. About 400 souls live at Chullillache. In the early morning, before sunrise, all the men and boys go out to sea on their balsas, raft-like craft provided with a mast and sail. They take their nets (beautifully made) and with them encircle a good area of water. The circle is gradually reduced until the catch, almost always plentiful, is made. The balsas return home about noon. The women then aid in the cleaning and drying of the fish, which is later sent up the valley to Sechura, Catacaos, Piura and other towns, on donkey-back.

A LARGE IRRIGATION DITCH ON THE HACIENDA OF SOJO, CHIRA VALLEY. This hacienda, belonging to Don Miguel Checa and Don Alfredo Checa y Eguiguren, is one of the largest and finest in Peru. The large white house in the background (two miles away) is the mansion of the hacienda.

The population of the larger towns consists, with the exception of a small proportion of pure Indians who go out to work their fields every day, of mestizos and a few whites. The houses of this class are mostly built of adobe, often whitewashed, and from the front they look fairly substantial and sophisticated. Inside, however, a great degree of filth and slovenliness is often encountered. The clothes of the mestizos are much better made and more numerous than those of the Indians (except the richer class of Indians already alluded to). Proximity to market and to shops where canned food can be bought tends to make their diet better than that of the country folk. Though most of the mestizo class is occupied in shop-keeping, hotel-keeping and kindred employments, not a few of them are landowners, lawyers and clerics. The richer and more educated ones, of course, often have really good houses, well furnished and often provided with a good piano or with a victrola.

The temperament of the Indians is, in most localities, one of joviality and good humor. When skilfully superintended they work industriously enough, but when left to themselves they become spasmodic in their activities. On the whole their health and vitality are good, though viruela and smallpox are not unknown. Vaccination is now compulsory and is fairly well enforced. I saw very little venereal disease in the PiuraTumbes region. The clean dry air of the desert tends to keep all illnesses at a minimum, although the conditions of living are often bad. Most of the children now get at least some instruc

tion in reading and writing, but illitearcy is common among the older folk. At Tumbes and Morropón I found the health conditions to be much worse than they are elsewhere. Bad irrigation, unaccompanied by proper drainage, has brought about a number of bodies of stagnant and pestiferous water. Malaria and various forms of anemia are common in both those places. Among the mestizos illiteracy is unusual, but many of them, and especially the women, have a peculiar bovine stupidity caused by a total lack of any sort of stimulating mental exercise. Unlike the Indians, the mestizos are given to unduly heavy drinking. One sees surprisingly little drunkenness in the Piura-Tumbes region, and most of what is seen is confined to the mestizo middle class.

The whites chiefly fall into two groups: the land-holding gentry, and the professional men and their families. Socially, of course, it is difficult to distinguish between them. They are all well educated and delightful, being among the most genuinely hospitable people in the world.

It is a difficult matter to exaggerate the power for good and likewise for evil which rests in the hands of the land-holding portion of the white upper class. On their vast estates the hacendados rule with unquestioned authority, using a system of overseers and headmen which has its roots in the ancient Inca régime. I am prepared to say that the great majority of the hacendados in the Piura-Tumbes region do not abuse their power, but neither do they avail themselves of the almost limit

THE MAIN HOUSE ON THE HACIENDA OF SOL-SOL, PIURA VALLEY. This hacienda belongs to Senator Victor Eguiguren, and it is typical of the more old-fashioned type of hacienda-house.