Cuzco: America's Ancient Mecca 



687 



QUICHUAS: LAST OF TH£ INCAS 



jars for holding chicha and water; work- 

 boxes containing materials and imple- 

 ments used in weaving ; bags and mats ; 

 most beautiful of all, exquisitely woven 

 garments and altar cloths. 



The ancient Peruvians highly devel- 

 oped the art of weaving. They raised 

 cotton and used the wool of the llama 

 and other animals of its kind. Vicuna 

 wool, being especially fine, was employed 

 in the best materials. The designs in the 

 weaving and on the pottery are in them- 

 selves descriptive of the people. The 

 other day, in the American Museum of 

 Natural History in New York, I saw ,an 

 artist busily engaged in copying the 

 unique design on a poncho worn, per- 

 haps, by an Inca ruler. No modern work 

 can excel many specimens left by the 

 Peruvians. 



The Andean Indians of today, both 

 men and women, spin as they walk along 

 the highway, using implements resem- 

 bling those found in ancient graves. 



Many still weave their own garments, 

 using crude looms. Their work, sad to 

 relate, in no way shows the art of their 

 progenitors, and they prefer the brilliant 

 colors produced by aniline dyes to the soft 

 shades popular long ago. The dreaded 

 time is coming when they will forsake 

 their picturesque homespun altogether 

 for gaudy materials "made in Germany." 



It is a simple matter for the visiting 

 American to see why the Germans get 

 the trade. In Cuzco, as in other out-of- 

 the-way places in South America, they 

 study the needs and tastes of the people. 

 If the descendants of the Incas yearn to 

 wear pea-green and royal purple, the 

 Kaiser's commercial travelers plan that 

 they may. 



Few travelers visit the attractive old 

 city — a German, Briton, or American 

 now and then in the interest of trade, an 

 occasional student. At the time of our 

 visit there was only one other gringo in 

 town, an American engineer, with the 



