File:The myths of Mexico and Peru (1913) (14803984423).jpg

Identifier: mythsofmexicoper01spen (find matches)
Title: The myths of Mexico and Peru
Year: 1913 (1910s)
Authors: Spence, Lewis, 1874-1955
Subjects: Indians of Mexico Indian mythology Indians of Mexico Indians of South America Indian mythology Indians of South America
Publisher: New York, T. Y. Crowell company
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

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the Mexicanin general mental culture, if not in mental capacity, asis proved by its inability to invent any method ofwritten communication or any adequate time-reckoning.In imitative art, too, the Peruvians were weak, save inpottery and rude modelling, and their religion savouredmuch more of the materialistic, and was altogether of alower cultus. The Country The country in which the interesting civilisation orthe Inca race was evolved presents physical featureswhich profoundly affected the history of the race. Infact, it is probable that in no country in the world hasthe configuration of the land so modified the events inthe life of the people dwelling within its borders. Thechain of the Andes divides into two branches near theboundary between Bolivia and Chili, and, with theCordillera de la Costa, encloses at a height of over3000 feet the Desaguadero, a vast tableland with anarea equal to France. To the north of this is Cuzco,the ancient capital of the Incas, to the south Potosi,^24S
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3 o •2 s ^ 5 O « THE ANDEANS the most elevated town in the world, whilst betweenthem lies Lake Titicaca, the largest body of fresh waterin South America. The whole country is dreary anddesolate in the extreme. Cereals cannot ripen, andanimals are rare. Yet it was in these desolate regionsthat the powerful and highly organised empire of Peruarose—an empire extending over an area 3000 mileslong by 400 broad. The Andeans The prehistoric natives of the Andean region hadevolved a civilisation long before the days of theInca dynasties, and the cyclopean ruins of theiredifices are to be found at intervals scattered over awide field on the slopes of the range under the shadowof which they dwelt. Their most extraordinaryachievement was probably the city of Tiahuanaco, onthe southern shore of Lake Titicaca, built at a level13,000 feet above the sea, occupying nearly half anacre in extent, and constructed of enormous megalithicblocks of trachytic rock. The great doorway, carvedout of a sing

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