u6 HarsJiberger. — Maize 



a ' 



land was owned by the gens. Agriculture was highly devel- 

 oped. The soil was fertilized with guano, and extensive 

 systems of irrigation were used. Maize, potatoes, yucca, 

 peppers, tobacco and cotton were raised. Architecture 

 reached a^high stage. It was cyclopean, erected upon tumuli, 

 or pyramids. The Peruvians were greatly deficient in decora- 

 tive skill and sculpture. They recorded their ideas by the 

 quippas, or knotted string, a system far inferior to the hiero- 

 glyphics of the Mayas. Their religious system was elaborate 

 and constituted a worship of the sun. A comparison of 

 the two greatest civilizations on the American continents, 

 the Maya and the Peruvian, leads to the opinion that the 

 Mayas excelled in those traits which make a nation great. 

 Their architecture was more artistic, their literature fuller 

 and richer, as a comparison of Maya glyphs and Peruvian 

 quippas alone shows. 1 



The Amazon and Orinoco basins were largely occupied by 

 tribes of Tupi, Tapuya, Carib and Arawak stocks. 



The Tupis were found along the seaboard from the mouth 

 of the La Plata to the Amazon, and far up the banks of the 

 latter. Here they are called the Guarani. " The general 

 culture of the Tupis was superior to the that of the Brazilian 

 tribes generally, but inferior to that of the Incas. They were, 

 to a slight extent, agricultural, raising maize, manioc and 

 tobacco." Some fowls, monkeys and peccaries were tamed 

 and used as food. 2 The Tupis in Ecuador evidently profited 

 by their nearness to the Peruvians, for they lived in perma- 

 nent villages, had good roads, knew gold, silver and copper, 

 and cultivated large fields of cotton, maize and various food 

 plants. "The art forms which they produced, and the preva- 

 lence of sun worship, with rites similar to Peru, indicate the 

 source of their more advanced culture." 



" The Arawak stock was the most widely disseminated of 

 any in South America. It began in the south with the 

 Guanas, on the head-waters of the River Paraguay, and with 

 the Baures and Moxos on the highlands of southern Bolivia, 



1 See Standard Natural History, vi, 219. 

 2 Brinton, American Race, 233. 



