way. It was, for
instance, the custom of the Incas, whenever they had reduced a tribe to
tribute, to force them to learn their language, which was the Quichua,
and is what the early Spanish writers call the general language of
Peru.<8> How far this language was forced on the tribes, and how far it
was their own idiom, we can not tell. Mr. Markham, who has made a
very careful study of all the authorities bearing on Peru, divides the
territory of ancient Peru into five divisions, and in each locates a
number of tribes, which he thinks forms a family.

The first, and most northern one, extends north from near Tumbez, in the
present State of Ecuador. The second extends from Loja, on the north, to
Cerro De Pasco, in about eleven degrees south latitude. The third, and
most important, extends from this last named place to the pass of La
Raya, fifteen degrees south latitude. This was the home of the Incas and
five other closely related tribes. To the south of La Raya is the basin
of Lake Titicaca, the home of a family of Indians generally known as
the Aymara Indians. This name is, however, wrong; these tribes should
be called the Collao Indians. These four divisions do not include any
territory west of the Cordillera range, except one part of the third
division. These four families are all closely related. Mr. Markham
thinks they all had a common origin. Mr. Squier thinks the Collao, or,
as they are generally called, the Aymara Indians, are distinct from the
others. "They differ from each other as widely as the German's differ
from the French," is his own conclusion. The entire coast district of
Peru was the home of many tribes of Indians, about which we as yet know
but little. The name by which they are known is Yuncas.<9>

We are now ready to proceed to a consideration of the culture of ancient
Peru, and a description of the monuments. But before doing so we must
have a word to say as to the authorities. At the time of the Spanish
conquest of Peru, the Empire of the Incas was supposed to have been in
existence about four hundred years. But the Incas had no hieroglyphic or
pictorial system of recording events. The most they had was a system
of knot records or quippos, which will be explained in due time. These
records were simply aids to the memory. Mr. Squier places them "about on
a par with Robinson Crusoe's Notched Calendar, or the chalked tally
of an illiterate tapster."<10> They are manifestly of no value as
historical r