XXVI 
WARLIKE WOMEN 
47^ 
sun sank into it, is plainly the Pacific Ocean ; but 
some accounts seem to point to Lake Titicaca, and 
others to the lakes of Mexico ; probably the general 
notion of such lake was made up of all three. It is 
scarcely necessary to remind the reader that most 
Indian nations call the ocean and a lake (and in some 
cases even a river) by one and the same name. The 
confusion of town (or city) and country is also uni- 
versal among them. I have been gravely told by 
a Jibaro Indian in the Andes that France and 
England were two towns, standing on opposite 
banks of a river, the people on the left bank being 
Christians and those on the right heathens : a piece 
of ethnology derived from the teaching of Catholic 
missionaries, and not at all flattering to myself as 
an Englishman. 
I think I can trace the progress of the fame of the 
riches of Peru quite across South America, to the 
Atlantic coast and islands, whence it surged back into 
the interior, so disguised and disfigured, that the 
Spaniards did not recognise it as indicating an El 
Dorado with which they were already familiar. Now 
the accounts of the real El Dorado of Peru (and 
of Mexico) would infallibly be accompanied by 
others of the Vestal communities dedicated to the 
worship of the sun, i.e, of women living alone, or 
women without husbands. If we deny the exist- 
ence of a nation, or nations, of warlike women on 
the Amazon, then the tradition could only have had 
its origin in the Virgins of the Sun ; and some 
accounts, such as that of Cabeza de Vega and 
Ribeiro, possibly point to them alone. But if we 
concede the fact of the existence of these war- 
like women, then may not the latter have been 
