Page:Isaiah Bowman - Desert Trails of Atacama (1924).pdf/348

 rated land constitutes but a few per cent of all the terraced areas. The terraces are grown up to ichu grass and the dark mijia bush used for fuel. In many cases the terraces are either ravined or covered with coarse deposits of alluvial cones or fans. Some are faced with stone where this is abundant, and these endure for a long time. Others are mere earthen em- bankments with flat tops, and these are more quickly washed down.

The arrangements between proprietor and peon shepherd are as follows. Each month the shepherd obtains one sol, or 50 cents gold, per 100 head of sheep in his care. He also re- ceives half an arroba, or about 124 pounds, of chuno (dried potatoes), worth about 60 cents gold, half an arroba of quinoa (30 cents gold), a pound of coca (25 cents), and one dried car- cass of mutton (30 cents). These items are to be multiplied by the number of hundred head in each shepherd’s care, the average running between 500 and 700 sheep. When the shep- herd does manual labor upon the estate of the proprietor, that is labor of a general sort—repairing fences or outbuildings, opening ditches, or cultivating land—he obtains coca and food but no pay. The accounts between the proprietor and the shepherd are settled on the first of January of each year. When a shepherd enters the employ of a proprietor he commonly receives 10 sheep to begin with, and these the shepherd may guard with those of the owner or separately, as he may desire. In addition each shepherd has the right to sow grain, plant a garden, and keep cattle. In some cases the shepherds have increased their own flocks up to 200 or more in number. If one of the owner’s sheep is lost or killed, the shepherd must lose the amount out of his yearly account. For every ten sheep sheared the shepherd gets 20 cents gold. For slaughter- ing ten sheep for the market the shepherd gets half of the five following parts: liver, heart, stomach, feet, and pancreas; but he obtains no ordinary meat. He can have the blood of the slaughtered animals if he wishes it.

Under the terms of the arrangement the shepherd must take both meat and wool to the railroad. While in this service he must use his own llamas free of charge, and he obtains in