Quassia

“ For fifteen miles beyond Santa Clara, the railway train climbs upward until the town of Chosica is reached, the scenery increasing in beauty as the valley narrows between the hills of the sierra and the foliage of the mountain side grows fresher and of more gorgeous hues. Chosica is one of the most popular health resorts of Peru, and has a delightful climate all the year round. Situated in the midst of mountains at an altitude of three thousand feet, it possesses many advantages as a sanitarium for invalids, and is a pleasant place of residence for those who like a restful and quiet retreat. ”

“ The city-state of Cuzco was now the dominant power throughout the whole of Central Peru, a territory 300 miles in length, whilst it exercised a kind of suzerainty over a district of equal extent toward the south-east, which it shortly converted into actual dominion.
[Contents]
Fusion of Races
This conquest of Central Peru led to the fusing of the Quichua-speaking tribes on the left bank of the Apurimac with the Aymara-speaking folk on the right [286] bank, with the result that the more numerous Quichua speedily gained linguistic ascendancy over their brethren the Aymara. ”

“ The Quaquas, whom the Tamanacs call Mapoje, are a tribe formerly very warlike and allied to the Caribbees. It is a curious phenomenon to find the Quaquas mingled with the Chaymas in the Missions of Cumana, for their language, as well as the Atura, of the cataracts of the Orinoco, is a dialect of the Salive tongue; and their original abode was on the banks of the Assiveru, which the Spaniards call Cuchivero. They have extended their migrations one hundred leagues to the north-east. ”

“ Before all things it must be understood that the valley of Cuzco is in 130° 15' from the equator on the side of the south pole [37] . In this valley, owing to its being fertile for cultivation, there were three tribes settled from most ancient times, the first called Sauaseras, the second Antasayas, the third Huallas. They settled near each other, although their lands for sowing were distinct, which is the property they valued most in those days and even now. These natives of the valley lived there in peace for many years, cultivating their farms. ”

“ The history of the Cushites, in its African section, has been entirely different, Shut in by the great desert from the rest of the world, and, until the discovery of America, protected from foreign aggression by the then, to them, mysterious ocean, they have peopled the vast interior of the African continent with numerous tribes and nations; of most of whom we have but vague, indefinite, and almost fabulous reports, and concerning whom the world is now in nearly as much doubt and incertitude, as it was two thousand years ago, in the time of Herodotus and Ptolemy. ”

“ Quoskh is also, undoubtedly, much smaller than he once was; but still his legs and neck are disproportionately long, when one thinks of the waters he wades and the nest he builds; and the tracks he leaves in the mud are startlingly like those fossilized footprints of giant birds that one finds in the rocks of the Pliocene era, deep under the earth’s surface, to tell what sort of creatures lived in the vast solitudes before man came to replenish the earth and subdue it. ”

“ Quesada led an expedition up the Magdalena River. He had for companion Benalcazar. They approached the country from the south, occupied Popagan and Pasto, and founded Guayaquil. They also penetrated the Valley of Curacua and Bogotá, and thus traversed the whole Province. This brought them into contact with the Chibcha Indians. In the end these unfortunate beings were completely subdued, their civilization destroyed, and they themselves divided as slaves among the Spaniards. ”

“ Why, the sailors had found the Quosoli the friendliest tribe anywhere. True, their experience with natives was not great because their gunboat had only recently been sent into the South Seas for duty, but they guessed they knew when even niggers were friendly.
But a funny thing had happened a day or two before they got there. The pretty young wife of the chief's son had killed herself—driven a knife right into her heart, and everybody in the tribe was afraid to touch her body—funny thing—because never in the memory of the oldest man in the tribe had a woman done that—killed herself, you know ”

“ While their neighbours, on the one hand, had to struggle painfully with the encroaching vigour of tropical forests, and, on the other, with the hardships of a sterile and half frozen alpine plateau, or with the isolation of small villages surrounded by trackless sandy deserts, the Quichuas were enjoying a warm though healthy climate, and reaping abundance from a fertile soil. They were placed in a position which was most advantageous for the complete development of all the civilisation of which that great family of mankind, to which they belong, are capable. ”

“ The first part of the journey was attended with comparatively little difficulty, while the Spaniards were yet in the land of the Incas; for the distractions of Peru had not been felt in this distant province, where the simple people still lived as under the primitive sway of the Children of the Sun. But the scene changed as they entered the territory of Quixos, where the character of the inhabitants, as well as of the climate, seemed to be of another description. The country was traversed by lofty ranges of the Andes, and the adventurers were soon entangled in their deep and intricate passes. ”

“ In order to learn more about the picturesque Quichuas who throng the streets of Cuzco it was felt to be important to secure anthropometric measurements of a hundred Indians. Accordingly, Surgeon Nelson set up a laboratory in the Hotel Central. His subjects were the unwilling victims Page 159of friendly gendarmes who went out into the streets with orders to bring for examination only pure-blooded Quichuas. Most of the Indians showed no resentment and were in the end pleased and surprised to find themselves the recipients of a small silver coin as compensation for loss of time. ”

“ Cuzco contains a number of partidos or districts lying on the west of the great Apurimac, and on the eastern Cordillera of the Andes; it is bounded [Pg 141] on the north by the Apurimac and the Andes of Cuzco, on the west by unconquered countries, east by Tarma, Guancavelica, and Guamanga, and south by Arequipa and the viceroyalty of La Plata, the boundary line of which runs between the lake Chucuito or Titicaca and along the chain of Vilcanota, and bounds the district of Paucartambo on the south. ”

“ Such was the sad end of the “bison” and the “Cuzco man,” who at one time I thought might be forty thousand years old, and now believe to have been two hundred years old, perhaps. The word Ayahuaycco in Quichua means “the valley of dead bodies” or “dead man's gulch.” There is a story that it was used as a burial place for plague victims in Cuzco, not more than three generations ago! Page 157
Chapter VIII The Oldest City in South America Cuzco, the oldest city in South America, has changed completely since Squier's visit. ”

“ The Quissamas and some of the natives on the River Quanza dye their cloths of a bluish-black with the black mud of the river, mixed with the infusion of a plant that I believe to be a species of indigo. Cloths are also made black by rubbing them with charred ground-nuts reduced to a fine paste, and, as already mentioned, a fine red for painting their faces, bodies, and houses, is obtained by rubbing tacula-wood to a pulp with water on a rough stone, and drying the resulting paste. ”

“ In ancient Peru the only very large city was Cuzco or Couzco; every where else the people lived in villages or in scattered habitations: and as the palaces of the Incas and their fortresses, which were built in all parts of the country, were rarely surrounded with the houses of the natives, very few distinct towns remain. ”

“ Only despotic rulers commanding like the Egyptian kings a host of obedient subjects, could have reared such a structure as the fortress of Sacsahuaman. The race that could erect such buildings and gather such treasures as the Temple of the Sun possessed, and could conquer and rule a dominion of fifty days' journey from north to south, must have been a strong and in its way a gifted race. It is hard to believe that it was the ancestor of those stolid and downtrodden Indians whom one sees to-day, peddling their rude wares in the market place of Cuzco. ”

“ On the north, a black, woolly-headed nation, called the Shangalla, already often mentioned, bounds Abyssinia, and serves like a string to the bow made by these nations of Galla. Who they are we know perfectly, being the Cushite Troglodytes of Sofala, Saba, Axum and Meroë; shut up, as I have already mentioned, in those caves, the first habitations of their more polished ancestors. Neither do these circumcise, though they immediately bordered upon Egypt, while the Cushite, adjoining to the peninsula of Africa certainly did. ”

“ The mountainous region being the chief part of the country, and being so narrow, as well as being torn by the wars that have been there, settlements of Christians cannot be made there, for it is a very remote region. From the city of Xauxa along the Cuzco road, the country keeps getting more shut in by mountains and the distance from the sea is greater. ”

“ In them are related the adventures of Balam-Quitzé, Balam-Agab, Mahucutah, and Iqi-Balam, the product of the final creation by Gucumatz and his companion deities, and the founders of the Quiché nations. The people multiplied greatly in a region called the East, and migrated in search of gods to Tulan-Zuiva, the 'seven caves,' where four gods were assigned to the four leaders; namely, Tohil, Avilix, Hacavitz, and Nicahtagah. Here their language was changed or divided, and the division into separate nations was established. ”

“ The fact that the sacred city of Cuzco was more likely to be attacked by invaders coming up the valley, or even over the gentle slopes from the west, or through the pass from the north which for centuries has been used as part of the main highway of the central Andes, never seems to have troubled writers who regarded Sacsahuaman essentially as a fortress. ”

“ It is probable, however, that the settlement of the Cuzco valley and district by the Incas or “people of the sun” took place some 300 years before Pizarro landed in Peru. The conquering tribe or tribes had made their way to the sierra from the plains, and found themselves a new land sheltered from attack amidst the lofty mountains that hem in the valley of Cuzco and the vast lake basin of Titicaca, situated 12,000 ft. above the sea level. The first historical records show us these people already possessed of a considerable civilization, and speaking two allied languages, Aymara and Quichua. ”

“ These allusions place it beyond doubt [?] that the drie see of Chaucer was the Great Sahara, the return from whence [sic] homewards would be by the chain of the Atlas or [sic] Carena.' On the writer's own shewing, the Carena was not the Atlas, but a chain stretching thence towards Egypt; not an obvious way of returning home! Whereas, if the 'dry sea' were the lake of Czirknitz, the obvious way of getting away from it would be to take ship in the neighbouring gulf of Quarnaro. And how could Chaucer come to hear of this remote chain of mountains? ”

“ The Inca gave a very favourable answer, giving them rich pieces of gold and silver to deliver to those who sent them. These messengers were several days in the city, receiving kind treatment and hospitality, judging more by what they saw than by what they had heard; and thus they recounted all things on their return. Some of the Orejones of Cuzco affirm that the general language used in all the provinces was that which was spoken by these Quichuas, [162] who were held by their neighbours to be very valiant until the Chancas destroyed them. ”

“ There are, of course, a good many of a mixed race, and on the coast there are not a few of the sons and daughters of unhappy Africa, and their descendants. The Peruvians who live in the towns on the coast, all speak the Spanish language, and know nothing of the ancient language of Peru, called the Quichua. Between the coast and the ridge [96] of the Andes, called the Cordillera, there are many towns, the inhabitants of which generally speak the Quichua and the Spanish, with, however, a predilection for their own native tongue. ”

“ Xauxa, and from Xauxa as far as the city of Cuzco. It is stony and rough; if there were not roads made by hand it would not be possible to travel on foot, still less on horseback, and for the roads there are many houses full of materials for repairing the pavement, and in this matter the lords had so much firmness that there was nothing to do but keep it in order. ”

“ The knot of Cuzco, so celebrated in the annals of Peruvian civilization, presents an average height of from 1200 to 1400 toises, and a surface nearly three times greater than the whole of Switzerland. The ridge of Chisinche, which separates the basins of Tacunga and Quito, is 1580 toises high, but scarcely a mile broad. The knots or groups which unite several partial chains have not the highest summits, either in the Andes or, for the most part, in the great mountain ranges of the old continent; it is not even certain that there is always in those knots a widening of the chain. ”

“ The partiality of the Quechuas for the high puna is well known—some of the ancient dwellings having been discovered at an elevation of more than seventeen thousand feet.
Those living near Pulqué seldom come down into the lower country; doubtless they are happier in their almost inaccessible fastness than if they lived nearer to their Bolivian neighbors. In appearance and dress these Indians differ greatly from the other members of the tribe living in the more populous sections of the country. ”