respects to the parent stock
that there is but little of variance worthy of note, while even the
variations from the modern types are most frequently the result of the
influence of the dead civilizations which still live in the stock which
was grafted upon them, though only upon their dead trunks.

Even as for long the history of the eastern coast was that of North
America, so at first the story of Peru was all of true history that we
find of the southern division of our continent. Yet closer in likeness
is the story of Peru to that of Mexico; there is the same tale of a
high, and in many respects admirable, civilization overthrown and
practically destroyed by Spanish lust for gold, and yet in some wise
abiding in influence upon the race which had crushed it. There is the
same record of a mild race yielding to the strength of one armed for
conquest; but in the case of the culture of the Incas the contrast
between conquerors and conquered is still more marked to the advantage
of the Peruvians, for they were of even gentler and more refined natures
than the Aztecs, influenced by a higher and purer religion and dwelling
under a system which encouraged and developed the noblest tendencies of
human nature. There were among the Peruvians fewer paradoxes and
contradictions of culture than among the Aztecs; they were not given to
even the refined forms of cannibalism indulged in by their northern
brethren, nor did they include human sacrifice as a part of their cult.
Their religion was a pure and somewhat simple sun-worship; indeed, the
Incas themselves claimed to be children of the sun. In other respects,
there were many points of approach between the civilization of the
Peruvians and that of the Aztecs; they might be roughly called cultures
of the same class, though where there lay advantage it was usually,
especially in matters which were of the ethical rather than the material
cultivation, on the side of the Peruvians.

As might be expected in such a state of culture, woman held among the
Peruvians a high place; one that might, in a further rough estimate, be
regarded as equal to the status of woman among the Aztecs. In this
comparison, however, the advantage is again found on the side of the
Peruvians, woman being, in some respects, in higher estimation among
them than among their northern compeers. Without pushing the
comparison,--indeed, it is less dangerous to speak positively,--let us
glance at the chief features of