TIAHUANACO RUINS. 



105 



was not understood by Jose, who spoke Quichua as well as his own. 

 The valley of Cuzco is the first inviting spot to the northwest of this lake, 

 and the road from it to Cuzco is level enough for a railroad. Manco 

 Capac and his wife were carried by east winds, which blow every day 

 across the lake, to the western shore, and travelled on foot the road we 

 took between Cuzco and Puno, according to Indian tradition. Among 

 the scattered stone remains of the ancient edifices of Tiahuanaco, we ob- 

 served no resemblance to the stone-work of Cuzco, and were surprised 

 to find that, although the ruins were in such a dilapidated state as not 

 to enable us to make out the character of the structure, we could per- 

 ceive, and were convinced of the higher order of mechanical art over 

 that displayed in Cuzco. The stones, immense in size, were hewn 

 square; one of them had an arched way cut in it large enough to drive 

 a mule through. 



The cura of the town told us there were no stone to be found in the 

 neighborhood of the same sort, and that he did not know whence they 

 had been brought. We have reason to believe Manco Capac had 

 nothing to do with the ancient works of Tiahuanaco. Both the hewing 

 of the stone and structure of the language of the people are different 

 from his, though his first appearance was among these people. 



We have faith in the peculiarities of the winds to aid the great work 

 of populating distant portions of the earth. The northeast trade-winds 

 of the North Atlantic ocean are fair winds for the emigrants of Europe 

 to North and South America ; and the southeast trade-winds in the south 

 Atlantic ocean hasten the passage of the African to Brazil, the West 

 India islands, and the shores of North America. Ships sailing around 

 Cape Horn are headed off sometimes a month by the westerly gales. 

 We are disposed to chart Manco Capac and his wife's track by the 

 the instrumentality of winds in the South Pacific ocean, from the far 

 West to the Bay of Arica. 



At the gateway, near a Catholic church, was standing two heavy 

 stone idols, with their hands crossed on their navels, as though there 

 had been — as is now — a scarcity of food. 



Tiahuanaco is a small town, situated upon a rise, in a wide valley, 

 with a long view to the east. The ruins are close to the town, and 

 from the level low ground towards the lake, no doubt the palace was 

 originally built upon the shore, now out of sight. . By a rough calcula- 

 tion, Lake Titicaca contains three thousand square miles. While we 

 look upon the parched hills and table-lands on the one hand, and eternal 

 ice on the other, it would seem this basin of ice-water was uplifted more 

 than twelve thousand feet above the ocean, for the daily use of the sun 



