THE FOREST INDIANS 39 



dling and burning the trees. When the soil becomes worn out and 

 the crops diminish, the old clearing is abandoned and allowed to 

 revert to natural growth and a new farm is planted to corn and 

 yuca. The population is so scattered and thin that the land assign- 

 ment system current among the plateau Indians is not practised 

 among the Machigangas. Several families commonly live together 

 and may be separated from their nearest neighbors by many miles 

 of forested mountains. The land is free for all, and, though some 

 heavy labor is necessary to clear it, once a small patch is cleared 

 it is easy to extend the tract by limited annual cuttings. Local 

 tracts of naturally unforested land are rarely planted, chiefly be- 

 cause the absence of shade has allowed the sun to burn out the 

 limited humus supply and to prevent more from accumulating. 

 The best soil of the mountain slopes is found where there is the 

 heaviest growth of timber, the deepest shade, the most humus, and 

 good natural drainage. It is the same on the playas along the 

 river; the recent additions to the flood plain are easy to cultivate, 

 but they lack humus and a fine matrix which retains moisture 

 and prevents drought or at least physiologic dryness. Here, too, 

 the timbered areas or the cane swamps are always selected for 

 planting. 



The traditions of the Machigangas go back to the time of the 

 Inca conquest, when the forest Indians, the "Antis," were subju- 

 gated and compelled to pay tribute. 2 When the Inca family itself 

 fled from Cuzco after the Spanish Conquest and sought refuge in 

 the wilderness it was to the Machiganga country that they came by 

 way of the Vilcabamba and Pampaconas Valleys. Afterward came 

 the Spaniards and though they did not exercise governmental au- 



2 The early chronicles contain several references to Antisuyu and the Antis. 

 Garcilaso de la Vega's description of the Inca conquests in Antisuyu are well known 

 (Royal Commentaries of the Yncas, Book 4, Chapters 16 and 17, Hakluyt Soc. Pubis., 

 1st Ser., No. 41, 1869 and Book 7, Chapters 13 and 14, No. 45, 1871). Salcamayhua 

 who also chronicles these conquests relates a legend concerning the tribute payers 

 of the eastern valleys. On one occasion, he says, three hundred Antis came laden with 

 gold from Opatari. Their arrival at Cuzco was coincident with a killing frost that 

 ruined all the crops of the basin whence the three hundred fortunates were ordered 

 with their gold to the top of the high hill of Pachatucsa (Pachatusun) and there 

 buried with it (An Account of the Antiquities of Peru, Hakluyt Soc. Pubis., 1st 

 Ser., No. 48, 1873). 



