r
to a distant province, he despatched a running messenger with a bundle
of knotted strings. The recipient had only to look at the strings to
find out the business on hand.

To facilitate the movement of troops, the Incas constructed two
excellent roads which met at Cuzco--one in the mountainous country, the
other along the coast. Europeans have justly admired these grand
constructions. The military roads were paved with stone, and had walls
and avenues of trees. At certain intervals were inns where the
swift-footed couriers could pass the night. The principal highway ran
from Cuzco to Quito. When the Inca himself was on a journey, he sat on a
golden throne carried on a litter by the great nobles of the empire.

European explorers still discover grand relics of the Inca period. The
people did not know the arch, and did not use bricks and mortar, yet
their temples and fortresses, their gates, towers, and walls are real
gems of architecture. The joins between the blocks are often scarcely
visible, and some portals are hewn out of a single block with artistic
and original chiselled figures and images of the sun god on the facades.

Their skill in pottery was of equal excellence, and as workers in metal
there was none to match them in the South American continent. They made
clubs and axes of bronze, and vessels and ornaments of gold and silver.
In their graves modern explorers have found many striking proofs of
their proficiency in the art of weaving. They used the wool of llamas,
alpacas, vicunas, and guanacos. These species of animal, allied to the
camel, still render great services to the Indians. The llama is
distributed over the greater part of the Andes, and the male only is
used as a transport animal. The llama is shy, stupid, and quiet, and his
head is somewhat like a sheep's. The alpaca does not carry loads, but is
kept as a domestic animal for the sake of its meat and wool. The vicuna
and guanaco also do not work in the service of man. The latter is found
chiefly on the steppes of Patagonia, where he meets the fate of the
South American ostrich and falls to the arrows of the Indians.

The Inca people wove clothes of the wool of these animals as well as of
cotton. The chief garment of the men was a short shirt without sleeves,
of the women a longer shirt with a belt round the waist. The men wore
short hair with a black bandage round the head; and outside the bandage
they wound a noose or lasso. The women wore th