PACKING AND SHIPPING 315 
ing tropical sun. As they follow their path 
to the interior, on train and by beast of bur 
den, they pass through torrid heat and tropical 
rains, across wind swept plateaus, through 
sand and snow storms, sleet and hail, above the 
clouds in high altitudes, and down into green 
valleys, across swollen streams, and on again 
up the sides of steep canyons, and through 
gloomy woods. Each night they are un 
strapped from the animals’ backs, and roughly 
thrown on the ground along the trail or in the 
filthy barnyard of some mountain hospice. 
Before the stars have stopped their twinkling 
in the early dawn they are again piled upon 
the backs of the unwilling, resisting beasts and 
the dreary, wearying, monotonous march re 
sumed. 
Custom has decreed the exact weight each 
burro, llama or mule will carry and let me add 
that these animals know to a nicety their load, 
and are life members of a union that prohibits 
its initiates from carrying more than is ex 
pected of them. Attempts to overload bring 
forth growls, groans and moans, and if these