The Llama

THE tourist who looks at a llama for the first time and exclaims, "Why, it's a small camel minus its hump!" is probably more right than he knows. There is a widely accepted theory among the scientists who study the bones of prehistoric animals that millions of years ago the original camels lived on the North American continent. As the theory goes, some of these primitive camels crossed over to Asia by way of Alaska and the Aleutian Islands and eventually became the "ships of the desert" to the peoples of the East. Others went southward through what are now Mexico and the Central American countries to South America, and emerged by the time man made his appearance on that continent as the guanaco and the vicuña. This theory is based on the fossil forms of camels that have been found in North America, plus the similarity in traits and habits as well as in the structure of fur fibers between the camels of the East and the lamoids of South America.

The term lamoids includes four species found in South America today: two wild— the guanaco and the vicuña; and two domesticated-the llama and the alpaca. It is generally believed by zoologists that the latter two were developed by the Incas from the guanaco. This is thought to have taken place some 1,200 years ago so that today there are pronounced differences among the three both in physical characteristics and in behaviour.

One of the most striking characteristics of the llama is the haughty way it carries 1 Pronounced lyah-ma.

its head, giving it an air of lofty pride." This is to some extent justified when you consider that llamas were one of the cornerstones on which the great civilization of the Incas was built. As the only means of transportation they made possible the building of irrigation projects, highways, temples, and other public works. Their fleece, along with that of alpacas, vicuñas, and guanacos, furnished wool for fabrics that have lasted through the centuries. And they also played a vital role in the Incas' religious life, as thousands of illfated llamas were sacrificed each year as votive offerings to the Sun.

To this day the llama is the most important animal in the lives of the Indians who live high in the Andes. As in the days of the Incas, it is the principal beast of burden in the area, and in addition supplies meat, fleece for warm clothing, hide for sandals, hairs for rope, and dropings for fuel.

As the largest and strongest of the four lamoids, llamas make the best pack animals. Their partially cleft hoofs make them unusually sure-footed-a valuable asset in the highlands of Bolivia and Peru. Male llamas are trained as burden carriers when they are three and a half or four years old. (The females are sent to pasturage and used only for breeding purposes and for their fleece.) Pack llamas seem to have a private labor union of their own. If they are asked to carry much over 100 pounds, or to keep going when they feel they have gone far enough, they literally go on a sit-down strike and refuse to budge until the management is forced to give in. For the majority of their

Indian masters, however, who understand

the terms on which their llamas will work for them, they are docile and faithful

servants.

Llamas can travel for as much as 20 days at a stretch, averaging 15 to 20 miles a day, and the operating costs amount to practically nothing, as they feed on the ychu grass that grows along the way. Like camels they can carry a few spare cuds in their complex stomachs to be chewed when no food is available. Very familiar in the Andine regions is the sight of llama trains carrying the products of the highlands-llama skins, crude wool, jerked meat, and products of the hand loom-to market towns at lower altitudes, or heading back home laden with provisions of corn, barley, potatoes, and coca leaves.

The llama's exalted position is every

where evident in Peru, where it appears symbolically on the country's coat of arms, coins, and postage stamps, and where the llama motif is widely used on textiles, hand-decorated gourds, pottery, and silver and gold ornaments.

The Lofty Alpaca

The alpaca is shorter than the llama, but its body has more bulk. Today as in preColumbian times it is used chiefly as a wool-producer. Its fleece hangs down in long strands, sometimes to the ground, so that it looks like a walking ball of wool. Like the llama, the alpaca may be white, light or dark brown, gray, or black. It lives at higher altitudes than the llama; while the latter's range begins at 7,500 feet above sea level, the alpaca is seldom seen below 12,000 feet, and is most at

home on the tablelands at 13,000 feet or higher. Its light warm fleece, which easily sheds rain and snow, is in great demand in the textile industry. Though it is inferior to that of the vicuña, it is far superior to most sheep's wool.

Business establishments have so far met with little success in raising alpacas on a large scale, and alpaca flocks are still owned mostly by Indians. The animals roam the tablelands by day, and return at night to stone corrals, some of which antedate the coming of the Spaniards. Once every two years the animals are sheared. In Peru (home of the great majority of alpacas) the fleece is brought to collecting points scattered through the highlands. Most of it is bought by large export companies and shipped to their

headquarters in Arequipa. There it is weighed and sorted by expert Indian women into seven basic shades. Then any excess dirt, vegetable matter, and inferior short pieces are removed, and it is baled and shipped to Mollendo for export.

During the war large quantities of alpaca wool were used in the manufacture of sleeping bags, parkas, flying suits, and rugged outdoor clothing for the Armed Forces of the United States. In peacetime it goes into fine cloth for dresses, linings, and umbrella coverings.

The Elegant Vicuña

Most fantastic of all the llama's relatives is the vicuña, whose fleece furnishes one of the finest and softest textile fibers known

o man.

This fiber was held in such high esteem by the Incas that only the rulers were allowed to use articles made from it. The chosen virgin handmaidens of the Sun wove the wool into cloth for the rulers' shawls, robes, carpets, and tapestries. The animal was carefully protected by law and could be hunted only during the four yearly solstice feasts, and even then each man could kill only a limited number.

The vicuña is smaller and daintier than any of the other lamoids. Its fur shades from golden chestnut to deep fawn color, and an apron of long white hair hangs down its chest and between its forelegs. Because of its unusual vision and agility, it is very hard to get near a vicuña, but even so the abandonment of all conservation laws after the Conquest almost resulted in its extinction. For some time now vicuñas have again been enjoying legal protection, and their numbers are once more on the increase.

THE VICUÑA

A vicuña is literally worth its weight in gold. Its fleece, which produces cloth unsurpassed in texture, luster, tensile strength, and beauty, holds the same place among wools as chinchilla holds among furs. On the New York market a coat made of cloth woven from vicuña wool costs from $400 to $1,100.

Though the Incas probably tried to domesticate the vicuña they never succeeded. Simón Bolívar, in his day, had the Peruvian Government offer a reward for each vicuña tamed, but to no avail. In recent years a few ranchers have succeeded in building up domesticated flocks, but for the most part vicuñas remain as wild and free as their ancestors that clothed the Incan emperors.

The Swift Guanaco

Finally, there is the guanaco (or huanaco as it is sometimes called), an animal that has a much wider range than the others, since it is found from eastern Bolivia and Peru southward across the plains of Patagonia to Tierra del Fuego. Guanacos are smaller than llamas, but larger than alpacas and vicuñas. The color varies from reddish or dark russet to pale yellow. The swiftest of the four lamoids, they are even more shy and difficult to catch than vicuñas. Their fur is of fine texture but so seldom available because of the wildness of the animal that it is not important commercially.

When Charles Darwin saw the guanaco in Patagonia in 1832 he described it as "an elegant animal in a state of nature, with a long slender neck and fine legs." Another observer, George Simpson, had a rather different impression. According to him, a guanaco "looks like a careless mixture of parts intended for other beasts and turned down as below standard."

Whatever its esthetic value, the guanaco