s terrae_, and
our New England cousins fondly refer to Boston, Mass., as "the hub of
the universe"!

[Illustration: Gold Ornament (? Zodiac) from a Tomb at Cuzco.]

Sec. (B) _Peru before the Arrival of the Spaniards_

The "national myth" of the Peruvians was that at Lake Titicaca two
supernatural beings appeared, both children of the Sun. One was Manco
Capac, the first Inca, who taught the people agriculture; the other was
his wife, who taught the women to spin and weave. From them were
lineally derived all the Incas. As representing the Sun, the Inca was
high priest and head of the hierarchy, and therefore presided at the
great religious festivals. He was the source from which everything
flowed--all dignity, all power, all emolument. Louis le Magnifique when
at the height of his power might be taken as a type of the emperor Inca:
both could literally use the phrase, _L'etat c'est Moi,_ "The State! I
am the State!"

In the royal palaces and dress great barbaric pomp was assumed. All the
apartments were studded with gold and silver ornaments.

The worship of the Sun, representing the Creator, the Dweller in Space,
the Teacher and Ruler of the Universe,[25] was the religion of the Incas
inherited from their distant ancestry. The great temple at Cuzco, with
its gorgeous display of riches, was called "the place of gold, the abode
of the Teacher of the Universe." An elliptical plate of gold was fixed
on the wall to represent the Deity.

[Footnote 25: According to Sir C. R. Markham, F. R. S.]

Sufficient evidence is still visible of the engineering industry evinced
by the natives before the arrival of Pizarro. We give some particulars
of the two principal highways, both joining Quito to Cuzco, then passing
south to Chile. First, the high level road, 1,600 miles in length,
crossing the great Peruvian table-land, and conducted over pathless
sierras buried in snow; with galleries cut for leagues through the
living rock, rivers crossed by means of bridges, and ravines of hideous
depth filled up with solid masonry. The roadway consisted of heavy
flags of freestone. Secondly, the low level highway along the coast
country between the Andes and the Pacific. The prehistoric engineers had
here to encounter quite a different task. The causeway was raised on a
high embankment of earth, with trees planted along the margin. In the
strips of sandy waste, huge piles (many of them to be seen to this day)
were driven into the ground