nd had disappeared in the jungle. We
hesitated to enter the home of a savage without an invitation, but the
terrific downpour overcame our scruples, if not our nervousness. The
hut had a steeply pitched roof. Its sides were made of small logs
driven endwise into the ground and fastened together with vines. A
small fire had been burning on the ground. Near the embers were two
old black ollas of Inca origin.

In the little chacra, cassava, coca, and sweet potatoes were growing in
haphazard fashion among charred and fallen tree trunks; a typical milpa
farm. In the clearing were the ruins of eighteen or twenty circular
houses arranged in an irregular group. We wondered if this could be the
"Inca city" which Lopez Torres had reported. Among the ruins we picked
up several fragments of Inca pottery. There was nothing Incaic about
the buildings. One was rectangular and one was spade-shaped, but all
the rest were round. The buildings varied in diameter from fifteen to
twenty feet. Each had but a single opening. The walls had tumbled down,
but gave no evidence of careful construction. Not far away, in woods
which had not yet been cleared by the savages, we found other circular
walls. They were still standing to a height of about four feet. If
the savages have extended their milpa clearings since our visit, the
falling trees have probably spoiled these walls by now. The ancient
village probably belonged to a tribe which acknowledged allegiance to
the Incas, but the architecture of the buildings gave no indication
of their having been constructed by the Incas themselves. We began
to wonder whether the "Pampa of Ghosts" really had anything important
in store for us. Undoubtedly this alluvial fan had been highly prized
in this country of terribly steep hills. It must have been inhabited,
off and on, for many centuries. Yet this was not an "Inca city."

While we were wondering whether the Incas themselves ever lived here,
there suddenly appeared the naked figure of a sturdy young savage,
armed with a stout bow and long arrows, and wearing a fillet of
bamboo. He had been hunting and showed us a bird he had shot. Soon
afterwards there came the two adult savages we had met at Saavedra's,
accompanied by a cross-eyed friend, all wearing long tunics. They
offered to guide us to other ruins. It was very difficult for us to
follow their rapid pace. Half an hour's scramble through the jungle
brought us to a pampa or natural terrace on the ban