336 l^e marks on the Ancle id Peruvians. 



This gentleman not only visited the elevated table-land of 

 the Andes, which was once inhabited by the ancient Peruvians, 

 but he remained a long time in that interesting region, and 

 has collected numerous facts in relation to the people them- 

 selves. 



1. The descendants of the ancient Peruvians yet inhabit 

 the land of their ancestors, and bear the name of Aymaras, 

 which was probably their primitive designation. 



2. The modern Aymaras resemble the surrounding Quichua 

 or Peruvian nations in colour, figure, features, expression, shape 

 of the head (which they have ceased to mould into artificial 

 forms), and in fact in every thing that relates to physical con- 

 formation and social customs : their languages differ, but even 

 here there is a resemblance which proves a common origin. 



3. On examining the tombs of the ancient Aymaras, in the 

 environs of the lake Titicaca, M. D'Orbigny remarked that 

 those which contained the compressed and elongated skulls, 

 contained also a greater number that were not flattened ; 

 whence he infers that the deformity was not natural, or cha- 

 racteristic of the nation, but the result of mechanical compres- 

 sion. 



4. It was also remarked that those skulls which were flat- 

 tened were uniformly those of men, while the heads of the 

 women always retained the natural shape, — the squared or 

 spheroidal form which is characteristic of the American race, 

 and especially of the Peruvians. 



^ 5. The most elongated heads were found in the largest and 

 finest tombs ; shewing that the deformity was a mark of dis- 

 tinction among these people. 



6. The researches of M. D'Orbigny confirm the statements 

 niade at distant intervals of time by Pedro de Cieza, Garcilaso 

 de la Vega, and Mr Pentland, and prove conclusively, what I 

 have never doubted, that these people were the architects of 

 their own tombs and temples ; and not, as some suppose, in- 

 truders who had usurped the civilization, and appropriated the 

 ingenuity of an antecedent and more intellectual race. 



M. D'Orbigny found temples from 100 to 200 metres in 

 length, facing the east, and ornamented with rows of angular 

 columns ; enormous gateways made of a single mass of rock, 



