Through five republics on horseback; being an account of many wanderings in South America . ad been falling all day,went lower and lower. All creation was a sound broke the awful quiet; only in ourears there seemed to be an unnatural singingwhich was painful, and we closed our eyes inweariness, for the sun seemed to have blisteredthe very eyeballs. When we mustered up suffi-cient energy to turn our aching, eyes to theheavens, we saw black storm-clouds piling them-selves one above another, and hope, whichsprings eternal in the human breast, saw inthem our hope, our salvation. The fall
Through five republics on horseback; being an account of many wanderings in South America . ad been falling all day,went lower and lower. All creation was a sound broke the awful quiet; only in ourears there seemed to be an unnatural singingwhich was painful, and we closed our eyes inweariness, for the sun seemed to have blisteredthe very eyeballs. When we mustered up suffi-cient energy to turn our aching, eyes to theheavens, we saw black storm-clouds piling them-selves one above another, and hope, whichsprings eternal in the human breast, saw inthem our hope, our salvation. The fall of the barometer, and the howling ofthe monkeys on shore also, warned us of theapproaching tempest, so we prepared for emer-gencies by securing the vessel fore and aft underthe lee of a rugged sierra before the storm broke—and break it did in all its might. Suddenly the wind swept down upon as withirresistible fury, and we breathed—we livedagain. So terrific was the sweep that giant trees,which had braved a centurys storms, fell to theearth with a crash. The hurricane was truly 120. 121 Bolivia. fearful. Soon the waters of the lake were lashedinto foam. Great drops of rain fell in blindingtorrents, and every fresh roll of thunder seemedto make the mountains tremble, while the lightning cleft asunder giant trees at one mightystroke. In the old legends of the Inca, read on theQuipus, we find that Pachacamac and Vira-eocha, the highest gods, placed in the heavens Nusta, a royal princess, armed with a pitcherof water, which she was to pour over the earthwhenever it was needed. When the rain wasaccompanied by thunder, lightning, and wind,the Indians believed that the maidens royalbrother was teasing her, and trying to wrest thepitcher from her hand. Nusta must indeedhave been fearfully teased that night, for thelightning of her eyes shot athwart the heavensand the sky was rent in flame. Often in those latitudes no rain falls for longmonths, but when once the clouds open the ear
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1920, booksubjectsoutham, bookyear1920
