nas. Immense areas
of Brazil and Bolivia are covered with impenetrable primeval forests,
which even still present an obstacle to the advance of the explorer.

Thus we find in the Andes all zones from the hot to the cold, from
tropical forests to barren heights, from the equator to high southern
latitudes.

Among these mountains dwelled in former times a remarkable and
law-abiding people, who under judicious and cautious kings attained a
high standard of power and development. To the leading tribe several
adjacent peoples allied themselves, and in time the mightiest and most
highly-cultured kingdom of South America flourished among them.
According to tradition, the ruling royal family took its rise where the
icefields of some of the loftiest summits of the Andes are reflected in
the mirror of Lake Titicaca. The king was called Inca, and when we speak
of the Inca Kingdom we mean old Peru, whose people were crushed and
annihilated by the Spaniards.

[Illustration: PLATE XXXV. COTOPAXI.]

The Inca Empire extended from Colombia and Ecuador in the north far down
to the present Chile. The Inca's power was unlimited, and after death he
was honoured with divine rites. He was surrounded with wealth and
grandeur. A red headband with white and black feathers was the sign of
his royal dignity. By his side stood the High Priest, who had to inquire
into and proclaim the will of the gods.

In Cuzco, the holy city of the Indians, north-west of the Titicaca lake,
the Inca people had erected a splendid temple to the sun and moon. The
halls of the sun temple were overlaid with plates of the ruddiest gold,
and the friezes and doors were of the same precious metal. In the
principal hall was worshipped an image of the sun with a human face in
the centre, surrounded by rays of precious stones. In another hall the
image of the moon goddess glittered in silver.

The sun and moon were, then, the objects of the deepest reverence. But
the Inca people also prayed to the rainbow and to the god of thunder,
and believed that certain inferior deities protected their herds,
dwellings, fields, and canals. They wore on the neck amulets which
shielded them from danger and sudden death, and were eventually buried
with them.

The dead were sewed up in hides or matting and interred under the
dwelling-house, or, in the case of important men, in special funereal
towers. On the coast the body was placed among boulders, in sand-banks,
or in large vessels