WARLIKE WOMEN 471 



sun sank into it, is plainly the Pacific Ocean ; but 

 some accounts seem to point to Lake Titicaca, and 

 others to the lakes of Mexico ; probably the general 

 notion of such lake was made up of all three. It is 

 scarcely necessary to remind the reader that most 

 Indian nations call the ocean and a lake (and in some 

 cases even a river) by one and the same name. The 

 confusion of town (or city) and country is also uni- 

 versal among them. I have been gravely told by 

 a Jibaro Indian in the Andes that France and 

 England were two towns, standing on opposite 

 banks of a river, the people on the left bank being 

 Christians and those on the right heathens : a piece 

 of ethnology derived from the teaching of Catholic 

 missionaries, and not at all flattering to myself as 

 an Englishman. 



O 



I think I can trace the progress of the fame of the 

 riches of Peru quite across South America, to the 

 Atlantic coast and islands, whence it surged back into 

 the interior, so disguised and disfigured, that the 

 Spaniards did not recognise it as indicating an El 

 Dorado with which they were already familiar. Now 

 the accounts of the real El Dorado of Peru (and 

 of Mexico) would infallibly be accompanied by 

 others of the Vestal communities dedicated to the 

 worship of the sun, i.e. of women living- alone, or 

 women without husbands. If we deny the exist- 

 ence of a nation, or nations, of warlike women on 

 the Amazon, then the tradition could only have had 

 its origin in the Virgins of the Sun ; and some 

 accounts, such as that of Cabeza de Vega and 

 Ribeiro, possibly point to them alone. But if we 

 concede the fact of the existence of these war- 

 like women, then may not the latter have been 



