NO. l8 ANTHROPOLOGICAL WORK IN TERU — HRDLICKA 37 



quantity of corresponding - bones were found here. They belonged 

 to healthy, strong and rather tall people, with evidently normally 

 meso- to brachycephalic skulls, but which in every case presented 

 more or less the " Aymara " deformation. 



This cave is known as Xassa, which is said to be a Quechua word, 

 but the signification of the term was not known to the writer's 

 informers. The accumulation of human remains in the cave repre- 

 sented plainly a secondary burial. There were no traces of pottery, 

 nor any metal objects, but shreds of fabrics were present, some of 

 which showed handsome colors and weaving. For the first time also 

 since the writer touched at Lomas, there was an absence of wounds 

 of the skull. 



Just as the exploration of the cave and the selection of speci- 

 mens were finished, the old shepherdess was seen descending with 

 her dogs from the opposite ridge among the bowlders. She was 

 soon with us, and then led us up ridge and down canyon, over 

 native trails and again where there were no roads, until we reached, 

 still surrounded on all sides by bowlders, an elevated V-shaped 

 nook on the slope not far from the top of one of the mesas, in one 

 side of which was seen an oblong, black crevice, closed except for 

 a small opening by stones. Through the opening, the writer could 

 see a large, dark cavern, the floor of which was covered .to about 

 two-thirds of its extent with human skulls, pelves, spines with ribs 

 and bones of the limbs. 



That forenoon, fortunately, we for once had no rain and the light 

 was quite bright, so that, removing the stones, it was possible to crawl 

 in and examine the inside without a fire. Upon entering it was 

 evident that, for the first time since the writer's work in Peru, he 

 was in a burial cave which had not been visited or disturbed by 

 anyone. The skulls and bones lay exactly as placed there by the 

 Indians, not even showing any damage by rodents or carnivores. 

 The hollow of the cave was filled with droppings — probably of the 

 guanaco which still abounds in this region, and a large number of 

 the bones and skulls were buried entirely or partly in this sub- 

 stance. About 40 skulls, however, and numerous other parts of the 

 skeleton lay, as before stated, uncovered. As in the first cave so 

 here all the crania, with one exception, showed a typical " Aymara " 

 deformation. As to the tindeformed specimen and several of those 

 where the deformation was of slight degree, they showed not the 

 small oblong type of skull which we thus far have associated with 

 the term " Aymara," but more rounded and in instances quite large 

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