456 The Ajstdes and the Amazons. 



over forty degrees of latitude. By the innumerable aban- 

 doned towns and ruined public works, by the crowded 

 cemeteries and the terraced mountains, as though space 

 were scarce, the traveler is forced to the conclusion that a 

 vast population once swarmed over the land. 



Alas, how fallen ! A nation, once the France of the 

 N"ew World, now peeled and enslaved, its manhood trod- 

 den out. The buildings of Cnzco are of mud, raised on 

 massive foundations,^dobe on stone — the upper half, cath- 

 olic and modern ; the lower, heathen and antique. What 

 a symbol ! The foot-ball and servant of the Spaniard for 

 three centuries, the Quichua Indians have lost all heart. 

 Their number has rapidly diminished since the Conquest. 

 They are filthy in the first degree ; but I forgive them. 

 They are idle ; but I do not blame them. According to 

 our measure of eating, they are in a starving condition ; 

 and this, though they have far better advantages than their 

 ancestors, for horses, oxen, sheep, goats, pigs, wheat, bar- 

 ley, iron, plows, and powder have all been introduced since 

 the times of the Incas. Their forefathers cut through six- 

 ty miles of granite to get a little water ; tliey rob the an- 

 cient graves for water -pitchers rather than make them 

 themselves. Who would recognize in this degraded peo- 

 ple the blood and brains that once raised the stupendous 

 fortress of Sacsahuaman — the Ehrenbreitstein of Peru ?* 



The pure Quichua always wears a silent, sad, serious ex- 

 pression.! Every thing about him wears a melancholy 

 cast — physiognomy, dress, landscape. He is reserved, la- 



* " But who would recognize in the fellahs of modern Egypt the descendants 

 of that people who have transmitted to our days many of the leading elements 

 of our civilization, and have left the pyramids as the imperishable witnesses 

 of their power ? Or in the barbarous and crafty Moors of Morocco the off- 

 spring of the brilliant Arabs who introduced chivalry into Europe?" — More- 

 let's Central America. 



t For physiognomy, see p. 111. 



