AMERICAN MUSEUM GUIDE LEAFLETS 
In a Guide Leaflet it will not be possible to go far in the peculiar art 
of the Peruvians, and but comparatively few of the innumerable designs 
can be shown. Their color schemes, which excite the wonder and 
admiration of artists, must be seen on the original webs, but enough 
designs can be reproduced to show the general character of this side 
of their art. 
It always gives an added zest to the work when we know something 
about the material from which we are drawing and for this reason it will 
not be out of place to say a few words about the history of these cloths. 
They all come from prehistoric graves; many of them were found still on 
the mummies when the burial places were excavated. A greater part of 
them came from the coast region which is a desert tract except for the 
valleys of the small rivers rising in the cordillera and flowing into the 
Pacific Ocean. These valleys were very fertile and there the people 
lived and buried their dead in the dry nitrous sand outside. Rain is 
all but unknown in this region, which accounts for the wonderful state 
of preservation in which these webs have come down to us. 
The first question that naturally suggests itself to the visitor is— 
How old are these things? This question cannot be definitely answered. 
All that can be said is that they antedate the Conquest (1532); that they 
belong to different epochs, and that the oldest in all probability date 
back several thousand years. In two papers published by the Museum, 
my associate, Mr. M. D. C. Crawford, has given the results of his studies 
in the technique of Peruvian textiles. To these anyone interested in 
that subject is referred. 
It is a very common mistake to speak of such a collection of Peruvian 
textiles as the work of the Incas, for by far the greater part of them were 
made by the so-called Megalithic people who ruled the country many 
centuries before the rise of the Inca empire. 
Four motives continually occur in Peruvian decorations: the human 
figure, the bird, the fish, and the puma. These were everywhere em- 
ployed throughout the country in designs which varied somewhat in the 
different localities, showing that their arts had developed along slightly 
different lines. 
In studying the designs more space will be given to.the figures de- 
rived from the fish than to those from the other motives. The reason. 
1 Anthropological Papers of the American Museum of Natural History, Vol. 12, 
Parts 3-4. 

