"Cooking is performed under difficulties, as water boils at 194° Fahrenheit; potatoes, beans, and similar things require much longer time for cooking than in the lowlands, and somebody says it is an excellent provision of nature that the potatoes are small. Frank suggests that when a traveller among mountains has no thermometer or barometer he can ascertain his elevation by observing how long it takes to boil a potato of a given size. [Illustration: WATER-CARRIERS.] "We started out of the hotel escorted by a guide who was to show us the sights of Quito. The streets are not crowded, and nobody seems to be in a hurry; there are many beggars, and some of them were very persistent, as is generally the case with beggars all over the world when strangers come within their reach. The water-carriers seem to form quite a class, and we were forcibly reminded of the same professionals of Cairo. There was this difference, however, that the latter transport their merchandise in skins, while those of Quito carry enormous jars on their shoulders or backs. They fill these jars at the public fountains, and then start off at a slow trot to supply the houses that employ them. We met a great many monks and priests, whose calling could be recognized at a considerable distance by their peculiar robes and the enormous hats which covered their heads. Quito is eminently a city of priests, and is liberally provided with churches and convents for its population of forty or fifty thousand. [Illustration: PRIESTS AND MONKS.] "Donkeys and mules are the beasts of burden, and occasionally some of them brushed against us with their loads, that projected far on each side. But they do not have a monopoly of the carrying trade, as we saw a good many Indians laden with baskets of vegetables and fruit from the neighboring country, and they appear to be as strong as the donkeys, if we may judge by their great loads. Many of these porters are women, and in some instances we saw men, without burdens, walking by the side of women carrying baskets large enough to be a load for two persons. Evidently the aborigines of Ecuador are no believers in the exemption of women from hard work.