"The great merry-making period of the year is that of the three days' carnival celebration. During this time business is entirely suspended, and the whole population--whether in Lima and other coast cities, the towns of the Andes, or the remote hamlets of the plateaux--give themselves over to frenzied play. This consists principally in bombarding each other from the balconies of the houses with _globos_, or india-rubber bladders full of water; squirts, scents, powder and other matters. It is impossible to pass along the streets during these three days' riotous play without being soaked or covered with flour or powder from above, and the only method is either to enter into the sport, or else lie low at home until it is over. The usual reserve between the sexes is much broken down at this time, and the warm-blooded Peruvian girl enters with much zest into the temporary licence of Carnival. "The houses of the upland towns are generally built of adobe or _tapiales_--that is, of bricks or concrete made of wet earth, sun-dried and whitened--the roofs being covered with red pantiles, or thatched with grass. Through the wide entrance door access is gained to the _patio_, or interior paved yard, after the usual Spanish American style, upon which the various rooms look and open. The windows upon the street are all securely barred with iron _rejas_, or grilles, and the whole aspect is quaint and mediaeval, though the arrangement lacks in comfort from the foreigner's point of view; whilst the interior _ménage_ is naturally of a nature more primitive than that of communities in European towns. But in general, the peoples of these regions dwell in sufficiency, and that acute poverty, as among the lower strata of foreign cities, does not exist in Peru.