onomical knowledge and appliances found in the neighboring states
which they subjugated. Their measure of the solar year and their
numbering of the months were precisely like what had long existed in
this part of the country; and they had the same astronomical implements
or contrivances. One of these contrivances, found at Chapultepec, is
described as follows:

"On the horizontal plane of a large, carefully-worked stone, three
arrows were cut in relief, so that the shaft ends came together and made
equal angles in the centre. The points were directed eastward, the two
outside showing the two solstitial points, and that in the centre the
equinoctial. A line on the carved band holding them together was in
range with holes in two stones which stood exactly north and south. A
cord drawn tightly through the holes in these two stones would, at the
moment of noon, cast its shadow on the line drawn across the band. It
was a perfect instrument for ascertaining east and west with precision,
and for determining the exact time by the rising and setting of the sun
at the equinoxes and solstices. This stone has now been broken up and
used to construct a furnace."

These Aztecs were manifestly something very different from "Mexican
savages." At the same time, they were less advanced in many things than
their predecessors. Their skill in architecture and architectural
ornamentation did not enable them to build such cities as Mitla and
Palenque, and their "picture writing" was a much ruder form of the
graphic art than the phonetic system of the Mayas and Quiches. It does
not appear that they ever went so far in literary improvement as to
adopt this simpler and more complete system for any purpose whatever. If
the country had never, in the previous ages, felt the influence of a
higher culture than that of the Aztecs, it would not have now, and never
could have had, ruined cities like Mitla, Copan, and Palenque. Not only
was the system of writing shown by the countless inscriptions quite
beyond the attainments of Aztec art, but also the abundant sculptures
and the whole system of decoration found in the old ruins.

X.

ANCIENT PERU.

The ruins of Ancient Peru are found chiefly on the elevated table-lands
of the Andes, between Quito and Lake Titicaca; but they can be traced
five hundred miles farther south, to Chili, and throughout the region
connecting these high plateaus with the Pacific coast. The great
district to which t