or piedras de Charasani. These are still 

 used and sold regularly in the native 

 markets by the dealers in medicines and 

 aromatic drugs. These curious sculp- 

 tures take the form of small models of 

 fields and farmsteads, with rows of sheep 

 and cattle. They remind one of the col- 

 onnades of bulls in Egypt, which may 

 have been constructed for the benefit of 

 the animal industry of the Empire of the 

 Pharaohs. 



DESTRUCTION OF THE INCA SYSTEM 



Agriculture was a fundamentally im- 

 portant step in the development of civili- 

 zation, because it constituted the discov- 

 ery of a way to live and let others live, 

 too. As long as primitive man remained 

 dependent upon game or natural products 

 there was seldom enough to go around. 

 The natural attitude of non-agricultural 

 tribes roaming about in search of food is 

 to fight all strangers on sight, and this 

 attitude persists in many nations that 

 have adopted agriculture as an art, but 

 are not yet converted to it as an ideal or 

 philosophy of existence. 



Dominance of the predatory instinct is 

 seen when people would rather raid the 

 harvests of others than raise crops of 

 their own. How thoroughly agricultural 

 were the ancient Peruvians in habits and 

 instincts is evidenced by their greater 

 freedom from the predatory instincts in 

 comparison with our European race. In 

 this respect the Incas were admittedly 

 superior. Several of the early historians 

 give testimony to this aspect of the Inca 

 civilization. Cieza de Leon and other 

 thoughtful men among the conquerors 

 saw very clearly that something had been 

 destroyed that could not be replaced. 



The most convincing testimony was 

 given by one of the soldiers who came 

 with Pizarro, the last survivor, he tells 

 us, of the original band, who had the best 

 opportunity of knowing what the Inca 

 organization was before the conquest ; 

 and after all of his companions were 

 gone, the idea of regret and remorse for 

 the destruction that had been wrought 

 grew in the mind of this aged warrior. 

 He cast about for a way to discharge his 

 conscience by telling the King of Spain 

 the truth about the Inca civilization. He 

 knew that the king's ear had been sought 

 by many adventurers, who carried tales 



Photograph by O. F. Cook 

 INSURING AGRICULTURAL PROSPERITY 



The rural Indians of Peru still believe in 

 "paying the Incas", for fear that their crops 

 will fail if the ancient observances are neg- 

 lected. Burnt offerings of drugs and aromatic 

 plants are still made and small images buried 

 in the fields for the benefit of the crops and 

 herds. Such are the stone carvings, called 

 mullo, or piedras de Charasani, that are still 

 sold in the native market of La Paz, Bolivia, 

 shown in actual size in this photograph. Some 

 of the carvings represent wives, boxes of 

 money, or money in the hand ; but most of 

 them are definitely agricultural, showing po- 

 tato fields, grain fields with irrigation chan- 

 nels, stacks, barns, and ranks of sheep or cattle, 

 like the colonnades of bulls in ancient Egypt. 



of wrongs to the Indians as a means of 

 securing their own advantage, and that 

 others had countered with tales of bar- 

 barous practices among the Indians, 

 some of them fabricated and others car- 

 ried over from the savage tribes of other 

 parts of America. Also the truth was 

 bitter, and the king might not hear it 

 willingly ; certainly nobody who hoped 



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