THE SACRED ISLAND OF TITICACA. 



487 



and illuminate the world. It was, so says the legend, plated all over with ^Sj^ and 

 silver, and, except upon the most solemn occasions, covered with a vail of dicih of 

 costly materials and gorgeous color. The gold and silver plating and the gorgeous 

 coverino" have long ago disappeared, and what is now seen is a bare rock, oi the crest 

 of the island, which rises 2,000 feet above the waters of the lake. Yet (^ven now, 

 when the Indian guides come within sight of it, they raise their hats, bow :/everently, 

 muttering words of mystic import, which they themselves, most likely, :].tily partly 

 comprehend. In front of the rock is a level artificial terrace 372 feet I. tig and 125 

 feet broad, supported by a low stone wall. According to tradition, tl« soil which 

 once covered tliis terrace was conveyed upon the backs of men from the liistant \ alleys 

 of the Amazon, so that it might nourish a vegetation denied by the f ird ungrateful 

 soil of the island. 



Everywhere on the holy island are the ruins of Inca structures, and the sites of the 

 most sacred spots are still shown. Here is the sheltered bay where ihe Incas landed 

 when they came to visit the spot consecrated to the sun. Half way up the ascent are 

 the "foot-prints" of the great Inca Tupanqui, marking the spot where he stood 

 when, catching his first view of the hallowed rock, he removed the imperial covering 

 from his head in token of adoration of the divinity whose shrine rose before him. 

 These so-called foot-prints look not unlike the impressions of a gigantic foot, thirty-six 

 inches long and of corresponding breadth. They are formed in outline by hard 

 ferruginous veins around which the softer rock has been worn away, leaving them in 

 relief. 



The sacred island of the Incas is now the property of a resident of Puna, a city on 

 the shore of the lake containing 7,000 inhabitants. It is the loftiest spot on the globe 

 which is the site of any considerable town. It stands 12,870 feet above the level of 

 the sea. The mining town of Potosi is indeed 500 feet higher, and there are among 

 the Andes post-stations and farms much higher. The station of Kumihuasi, in the 

 Puna, the loftiest permanently inhabited spot in the New World, is 15,542 feet high — 

 only 242 feet below the summit of Mont Blanc ; and the gold mine of Thok Jalung in 

 Thibet is 18,330 feet above the sea. The proprietor of the sacred island has a 

 hacienda close by the "Bath of the Incas." *' It consists," says Squier, "of three 

 small buildings, occupying as many sides of a court. One is a kitchen and dormitory, 

 another a kind of granary or storehouse, and in the third is an apartment reserved for 

 the proprietor when he visits the island. The room is neatly whitewashed, the floor 

 matted, and there are two real chairs from Connecticut, and a table that may be 

 touched without falling in pieces. The night was bitterly cold," continues Squier, 

 " and we had no covering except our saddle-cloths, having declined some sheep skins 

 which the alcalde would have taken from the poor people of the establishment. A 

 sheep skin, or the skin of a vicuna, spread on the mud floor of his hut, is the only bed 

 of the Indian from one year's end to the other. It is always filthy, and frequently 

 full of vermin. Before going to bed we went out into the frosty, starry night, and 

 were surprised to see fires blazing on the topmost peaks of the island, on the crest of 

 Coati, and on the headland- of Copobanca. Others, many of them hardly discernible 

 in the distance, were also burning on the peninsula of Tiquina, and on the bluflf 

 Bolivian shores of the lake, their red light shimmering like golden lances over the 

 water. Our first impression was that some mysterious signalling was going on, con- 



