"Despite these improvements, which are not general, the traveller is always greatly impressed when, as he journeys through the mountainous regions, surrounded on every hand by gloomy masses without horizon, he hears, suddenly, at the fall of night, rising near at hand in the midst of a profound silence, the long mournful notes of the _quena_, like a long and profound complaint, which echo repeats in distant sobs. Sometimes the flute is accompanied by the measured taps of a drum or tambourine, and sometimes it accompanies a song, monotonous and guttural as the songs of the Arabs; sounds inspiring sombre thoughts and provoking a shudder of melancholy in the stranger who hears them for the first time. The _quena_, indeed, produces sounds of a sinister melancholy; one manner of playing it consists of introducing it into a great crock of earthenware pierced with a hole on either side so that the hands may be introduced; and when so played it yields notes of sepulchral sonority. In all the arsenal of human music it would perhaps be impossible to discover more doleful sounds. "When this primitive music seeks to interpret a comparatively calm and cheerful frame of mind it is certainly a little more inspiriting, but some of its notes are still like the moans of a stricken soul. "The native dances are for the most part common to both Aymaras and Quechuas. The most ridiculous and grotesque of these, on account of the extravagant costumes worn by the dancers, are the _Danzantes_, the _Huacas-Tocoris_, the _Pacoches_, the _Morenos_, the _Tundiques_ and others yet, such as the _Sicuris_ and the _Chiriguano_. "This last is a war-dance; the dancers wear each the skin of a jaguar, or something resembling one; each carries a heavy stick; the music is harsh and warlike. The _sicuri_ is danced by a group of fourteen Indians, wearing petticoats of white cotton cloth; on the head of each is a hat adorned with long feathers, the whole having the shape of an umbrella; they wear tambourines at their girdles and play the _zampona_, using two instruments. The _huaca-tocoris_ or _toros danzantes_ is performed during the fêtes of Corpus. A wooden framework covered with hide vaguely represents a bull; in the back of the beast is a hole through which the dancer introduces his body; his face smeared with soot, and clad in the following costume: white breeches, an old coat, a red poncho, and a hat bearing a semicircular crown of feathers. To imitate a bull-fighter another dancer brandishes a wooden sword in one hand and waves a handkerchief with the other.