302 



SOUTH AMERICA— THE ANDES EEGIONS. 



Fig. 116. — Empire of the Incas. 

 Scale 1 : 37,000,000. 



contrary, the Spaniards themselves learn Quichua, and usually speak it in the 

 family circle in preference to their own. Several Quichua terras, such as jmmpa, 

 llama, condor, guano, quiiia, have entered into the universal speech of cultured 

 peoples. 



But, despite its hard struggle for existence, there can be little doubt that 



Quichua must eventually yield to 

 Spanish, which is the speech of 

 the dominant urban populations, of 

 literature, commerce, and contem- 

 porary civilisation. Quichua is a 

 remarkable language in several re- 

 spects, and may be taken as a type 

 of the South American agglutinating 

 tongues. Thanks to the facility of 

 composition, it is extremely rich 

 and pliant, capable of expressing 

 with ease the subtlest shades of 

 thought, not by inflections of the 

 root, as in the Aryan system, but 

 by particles loosely attached to the 

 word. Both subject and object are 

 incorporated in the verb, and in 

 conversation the two speakers are 

 clearly indicated by the formal 

 elements. 



Between the years 1560 and 

 1754 no less than ten grammars 

 and dictionaries were published, all 

 but one at Lima. Quichua also 

 possesses a copious literature, in- 

 cluding the Apu Olhintai, an ancient 

 drama in several texts, relating the 

 feudal wars of the Inca empire. 

 Markham has also brought to light 

 the Usca Paucan (" Loves of the 

 Golden Flower"), a tragedy which 

 has unfortunately been tampered 

 with in the extant copies made by 

 the missionaries, who have intro- 

 duced the Madonna, angels, and 

 Catholic miracles. 

 Quichua letters continue even still to be enriched by fresh works. Besides 

 devotional texts and satirical songs, in which Spanish and the native language are 

 intermingled, elegies and other poems, mostly pervaded by a melancholy spirit, 



West or ureen 



Empire ot 

 the lucas. 



Zone of 

 Influence. 



Aymaras. 



620 Miles. 



