the mountaineer, and influences his moral feelings in such a manner as stamps a certain air of mental gravity on his general deportment and expression. As an individual, the Indian is timid, and he will sooner take a cuff than give one; but, when they assemble for mutual support, then indeed they are seen to fight most valiantly, and like tame oxen, when the blood of one of their number is shed, they all become fearfully courageous. Bold and bloody battles we have seen between strong parties of the native miners in Cerro Pasco, armed for the combat with slings, stones, and clubs. At festivals, too, when roused by drink or enraged by jealousy, they lacerate and maul each other: and the meek-looking, dumpy, Indian woman becomes equally exasperated and vehement if in her quarrels any one should cut away a tress of her long and coarse black hair; for the cutting of these tresses is an odious mark of female dishonour, to which women of every caste in the land,—except the woolly-headed blacks and mulattas, on whom nature has not bestowed these ornaments,—are most acutely and painfully sensitive.[24] From the beagle-courage of the Indian, who, like these gentle animals, fights better in company with others than singly, his military character stands very high; and a regiment of Indians when conducted by gallant officers, as was the case during the war of Peruvian independence, are sure to prove indomitably brave and hardy. The dark and zambo soldier of the coast, when urged forward on a rapid Sierra march, is very apt to sink under the pressure of fatigue, conjoined with pinching cold and inevitable privations, to which he has been little accustomed in the warm and humid “potreros” or enclosures near the sea. But the Indian foot-soldier is superior to such obstacles; and with only the support of a pouch of coca, and a bag of toasted maize, he will continue his march wherever the llama can keep its footing over ledges of rock, and rugged recesses so wild and so land-locked, that, as the dwellers in these solitudes say, it would seem difficult for the birds of the air to escape from them. But though, when engaged on long and forced marches over savage mountains and glens, one of these all-enduring and active natives hardly ever falls behind from mere fatigue, yet he has not so far forgotten the shade of his fig-tree in the bosom of the vale, or his airy home on some distant eyrie, from whence he was dragged in bonds, as not secretly to pant for his native nest; and, on long inland marches, the general or commander who is not singularly vigilant, or uncommonly beloved, has more to fear that the Indian may desert him on the journey than when engaged with the enemy.