ask the nature of his crime, but he looked like a murderer.  When he unwrapped an ancient pair of clippers from an unspeakably soiled and oily rag, I wished I was in a position to decline to place myself under his ministrations.  The sub-prefect, however, had been so kind and was so apologetic as to the inconveniences of the “barber-shop” that there was nothing for it but to go bravely forward.  Although it was unpleasant to have one’s hair trimmed by an uncertain pair of rusty clippers, I could not help experiencing a feeling of relief that the convict did not have a pair of shears.  He was working too near my jugular vein.  Finally the period of torture came to an end, and the prisoner accepted his fees with a profound salutation.  We breathed sighs of relief, not unmixed with sympathy, as we saw him marched safely away by the gendarme.

We had arrived in Cotahuasi almost simultaneously with Dr. Bowman and Topographer Hendriksen.  They had encountered extraordinary difficulties in carrying out the reconnaissance of the 73d meridian, but were now past the worst of it.  Their supplies were exhausted, so those which we had brought from Arequipa were doubly welcome.  Mr. Watkins was assigned to assist Mr. Hendriksen and a few days later Dr. Bowman started south to study the geology and geography of the desert.  He took with him as escort Corporal Gamarra, who was only too glad to escape from the machinations of his enemies.  It will be remembered that it was Gamarra who had successfully defended the Cotahuasi barracks and jail at the time of a revolutionary riot which occurred some months previous to our visit.  The sub-prefect accompanied Dr. Bowman out of town.  For Gamarra’s sake they left the house at three o’clock in the morning and our generous host agreed to ride with them until daybreak.  In his important monograph, “The Andes of Southern Peru,” Dr. Bowman writes:  “At four o’clock our whispered arrangements were made.  We opened the gates noiselessly and our small cavalcade hurried through the pitch-black streets of the town.  The soldier rode ahead, his rifle across his saddle, and directly behind him rode the sub-prefect and myself.  The pack mules were in the rear.  We had almost reached the end of the street when a door opened suddenly and a shower of sparks flew out ahead of us.  Instantly the soldier struck spurs into his mule and turned into a side street.  The sub-prefect drew his horse back savagely, and when the next shower of sparks flew out pushed me against the wall and whispered, ‘For God’s sake, who is it?’ Then suddenly he shouted.  ‘Stop blowing!  Stop blowing!’ "

The cause of all the disturbance was a shabby, hard-working tailor who had gotten up at this unearthly hour to start his day’s work by pressing clothes for some insistent customer.  He had in his hand an ancient smoothing-iron filled with live coals, on which he had been vigorously blowing.  Hence the sparks!  That a penitent tailor and his ancient goose should have been able to cause such terrific excitement at that hour in the morning would have interested our own Oliver Wendell Holmes, who was fond of referring to this picturesque apparatus and who might have written an appropriate essay on The Goose that Startled the Soldier of Cotahuasi; with Particular Reference to His Being a Possible Namesake of the Geese that Aroused the Soldiers of Ancient Rome.