"Our guide called attention to the distinction among the men on the streets, some of them wearing cloaks and others _ponchos_. No gentleman would wear a poncho in public any more than a Frenchman of the middle or upper classes would don a blouse for a promenade. The poncho is far the more picturesque of the two garments, and I am inclined to think its wearers are more comfortable than the genteel part of the population. Ladies wear the _panuelon_, which corresponds to the Spanish mantilla, and they eschew hats and bonnets altogether. The only head-covering beyond the hair is a lace veil or a fold of the panuelon; but its use is by no means obligatory. It is said that when the daughter of an American minister-resident wore a bonnet in the cathedral on the Sunday following her arrival, she was criticised as severely as she would be for wearing a masculine 'stove-pipe' in a New York church. "A gentleman who has lived here for some time says there are about eight thousand people of Spanish origin in Quito, ten or twelve thousand Indians of pure blood, and perhaps twenty thousand _cholos_ or mixed races. Then there are a few foreigners and negroes, and other few who cannot be readily classified. The whites are the aristocracy or ruling race, and, owing to the numerous revolutions which have reduced the male population, women outnumber the men. For a white man to work would be degrading, and many a gentleman will not hesitate to beg for a dinner or a cup of coffee, though he would scorn to earn the money to pay for it. The poverty-stricken hidalgo of Spain is no more proud of his lineage than is the Spanish-descended resident of Quito, who wraps his tattered cloak around him, and comforts himself with reflections upon the past glories of his family. [Illustration: LAUNDRESSES OF QUITO.] "In the course of our wanderings we came to the bank of the river which flows past Quito. It is an insignificant stream, ordinarily, but swells to a torrent at certain seasons of the year, when the rains fall in the neighboring mountains. Laundresses were at work at their trade, and from the way the linen of Quito is washed, it is certain to need frequent renewal. The garments are dipped in the river, and then spread on the rocks, where they are pounded with mallets or bowlders until the desired condition of cleanliness is attained. It reminded us of the way the Bengalee _dhobies_ at Madras washed our clothing, and accounts for the large importation of cotton goods into Ecuador in proportion to the population. "While we were passing a potato-field Dr. Bronson reminded us that we might consider ourselves near the birthplace of an intimate friend. "We tried to think what friend of ours was born in Quito, but could not remember any. We said so to the Doctor, and he then explained that the one he referred to was the potato.