104 Harshberger. — Maize: 



the construction of the huaca, to belong to a period long 

 anterior to the conquest. 



Wittmack 1 describes the maize taken from the graves at 

 Ancon by Reiss and Steubel as in no way like the form 

 found in the mounds. But a later study led to a partial mod- 

 ification of his views, for Steffen 2 quotes him as expressing 

 the opinion that the small, round, spindle-shaped grains found 

 in the graves were similar to those found in the mounds of 

 North America. The previous statement must have been 

 based on his third form (genabelter) dent maize. His second 

 form, pointed {spitz komigeri), is found in many varieties in 

 Mexico, and Wittmack believes clearly points to a union 

 between Peru and Mexico (Steffen, 102). The number of 

 varieties being greater in Mexico than in Peru, shows a greater 

 length of ttme in which variation took place. 



Heads of maize carved in stone are found in certain ruins. 3 

 They are mentioned in Juan and Ulloa's work, nearly a cen- 

 tury and a half ago, and seem to have been better known at 

 that time than they are at present. 4 Squier gives in his book 

 on Peru (91) a bad representation of one of these stone maize 

 heads, and says that they were specially mentioned by Padre 

 Arriaga, in his rare book, "Extirpation of Idolatry in Peru," 

 under the name Zara-mama, and were the household gods of 

 the ancient inhabitants. "The Indians derived their idols 

 from those events which had influenced their course through 

 life, and which they thus commemorated." 5 They had their 

 lares, or conopa. Corn was called Zara-conopa. Stones cut 

 in the shape of maize ears were called Zara-mama, and were 

 considered sacred, although not personified as deity. 



The architectural and archaeological evidence points to 

 the Mayas as higher in civilization than the Peruvians, for 

 their sculptured figures and hieroglyphical inscriptions are 

 much beyond anything which the South American semi-civi- 



1 Wittmack, Monatschrift f. Gartenbaues, 1880, 121. 



- Steffen, Die Landwirthschaft bsiden Alt. Amerikanischen Kulturvolkern, 1883. 

 Zeitschrift f . Anthropologie, xn, 1880. 



3 Whymper, Travels Among the Greater Andes ; 1892, 275. Illustration, 



4 Relacion hist6rica del Viaje a la America meridional, Madrid, 1748, § 1047. 



5 Tschudi, Peruvian Antiquities, 171. 



