Lost City of the Incas (Phoenix Press) (9 page)

We do not know, probably we shall never know, when corn was first cultivated in Peru. Mr Cook believes that the cultivation of corn in Peru goes
very
far back, not only because of the abundance of specimens found in ancient graves but also because the types of maize which furnish the bulk of the Peruvian crop are peculiar to that region.

An Inca food plant almost unknown to Europeans is
canihua
, a kind of pig weed. It is harvested in April, and the stalks are dried and placed on a large blanket laid on the ground as a threshing floor. The blanket serves to prevent the small greyish seeds from escaping when the flail is applied.

Another unfamiliar food plant, also a species of pig weed, is called
quinoa
. Growing readily on the slopes of the high Andes at an elevation as great as most of the Rocky Mountains, it manages to attain a height of 3 or 4 feet and produces abundant crops. The seeds are cooked like a cereal and are very palatable.

At lower elevations in the Andes the Incas developed another series of root crops, most of which are still unfamiliar to us, but one of which, the sweet potato, has achieved world-wide popularity. First domesticated from a wild plant found in the eastern Andes, it is called
cumara
by the Quichuas in the Urubamba valley. All over Polynesia it bears virtually the same name, kumala or kumara. From Peru it seems to have spread over the Pacific Ocean. One of the greatest achievements of the extraordinary group of ancient navigators whom we call Polynesians was to plant it in Hawaii, Samoa, Tahiti, New Zealand, and everywhere they went with their great double canoes.

In addition to discovering and developing useful plants, the Incas also were the first to learn the advantages of certain medicinal herbs, particularly quinine, long known as a specific in the cure of malaria. They also discovered the specific effects of cocaine, which is extracted from coca leaves, but only those engaged in such strenuous activities as post-running were allowed to use it. Judging by the ‘medicines’ sold by the Indian ‘druggists’ who display their wares in the market places of the
mountain towns, the ancient remedies included such minerals as sulphur, such vegetables as the seeds, roots, and dried leaves of tropical jungle plants, and such animals as star-fish!

Not only were the Incas remarkable for domesticating plants, they also showed great skill in domesticating animals. In the Andes is a little rodent called a
cuy
. It is extremely timid and difficult to catch. We call it a guinea pig although it never came from Guinea and is not a pig. Discovering that it was very palatable when roasted over an open fire or boiled in a stew the Incas domesticated it and developed a dozen different varieties, all of which are so tame that they can be trusted to run about the floor of an Indian’s cabin, making no effort to escape, and are ready to be caught, killed, cooked, and served as a delicious morsel whenever company appears unexpectedly.

Father Cobo, a learned Jesuit, who travelled extensively in the Andes in 1600, tells how guinea pigs were cooked in his day. In preparing a stew, red pepper was added, also smooth little pebbles from the river! These were placed in the belly of the
cuy
after being thoroughly heated, so as to hasten the process of cooking. He states with praiseworthy candour, ‘this dish is more esteemed by the Indians than any of the more delicate ones which Spaniards make. The flesh of the domesticated kind is more delicate. The three wild kinds are somewhat smaller than the domesticated and are found in great numbers in the fields.’

The Incas domesticated at least three varieties of dogs but there is no evidence that, like the Polynesians, they used any of them as an article of food.

Another interesting example of the Incas’ skill in breeding animals is their success with the native American camel, known as the
guanaco
. Not so very long ago vast herds of guanaco were still to be found in Patagonia, which has a climate very similar to the highlands of Peru. These little camels measure more than 6 feet and sometimes as much as 7 feet to the top of the head. Guanaco hunting used to be regarded as the finest sport in
South America. They are exceedingly shy and it requires no little patience to get within gunshot of them. Guanaco are very inquisitive and restless but keep a sharp look out for danger. Both their vision and power of scent are wonderfully good. The herds, composed principally of females, are presided over by vigorous old males who stand sentry on a bit of high ground and give timely notice of any strange object. Then they all gallop off very fast, although their ordinary pace is a trot. Notwithstanding their extreme shyness, they were caught and tamed by the early dwellers in the highlands.

Ability to catch such timid, fast animals was undoubtedly due to the use of the
bolas
, a remarkable weapon or missile consisting of two balls or stones connected with strong cord. The throwing of
bolas
so as to entangle the legs of birds and animals is an extremely difficult art. Had the ancient Peruvians not been familiar with this useful device, but depended entirely on sling-stones, arrows, or clubs, it is doubtful whether they would have been so successful in securing and domesticating the little camels.

Furthermore, the Incas actually succeeded in the difficult and tedious process of breeding from the little camels two varieties for entirely different purposes, the llama and the alpaca. Although guanacos are all of one colour, the llamas and alpacas are of many different colours. The llama is streamlined and well adapted to act as a beast of burden, even though it is neither large enough nor strong enough to carry more than ninety or a hundred pounds. It has legs fairly free from wool, and its hair is coarse and will stand the chafing caused by the loads they carry. The alpaca, on the other hand, is conspicuously woolly, both as to its legs and neck. Its hair is fine and soft and is in great demand for making luxurious woollen garments. Due to the fact that shrewd cloth merchants, many years ago, adopted the name ‘alpaca’ for a rather coarse material made from sheep’s wool and cotton and used extensively in the manufacture of thin black coats, the term ‘alpaca’ is not used in commerce for the real article. Overcoats and shawls made of the beautiful soft wool of the Peruvian alpaca are usually said to be ‘camel’s hair’, ‘
vicuña
’, or even ‘llama’. Few purchasers in the northern hemisphere
know that llama wool is too coarse to be desirable for such purposes. On the other hand, if the material were called ‘alpaca’ the purchaser would not expect it to be any softer or more attractive than the ancient product of Yankee ingenuity.

It is interesting to note that the Incas and their influence throughout the Andes apparently did not extend any further north than the known limits of the llama. In fact, the development of their culture may be said to have depended in large measure on their success in breeding this little American camel. Their ability to raise and train hundreds of thousands of llamas which could and would carry useful loads enabled the mountain people to carry out engineering and agricultural works far more extensive than could have been accomplished had they been obliged to depend entirely on human labour.

Some American archaeologists are prone to shorten the length of time during which the civilization of the Incas was developing. Because the Mayas of Central America used hieroglyphics and invented a calendar it is easy to give them a couple of thousand years, while the Incas are limited to a few hundred. Technically they are right, if one chooses to restrict the use of the word Inca to the few centuries when the rulers were actually called Incas. But if one uses the term Inca to characterize that remarkable civilization discovered by the Spaniards in the sixteenth century, with its advanced agriculture, its magnificent engineering works, and its success over centuries in producing from an exceedingly wild ancestor two such distinct domestic and purebred animals as the llama and alpaca, it becomes evident that the period covered by the growth of this ancient Peruvian civilization must have lasted for several thousand years.

This theory is also confirmed by the many varieties of both potatoes and corn found in Inca land, and also by the fact that the guinea pigs, which the Incas domesticated and bred, are as widely different in colour and in coat as are the cats of the
Mediterranean region, which are known to be of extremely ancient lineage.

Unfortunately the ancient Peruvians never developed any form of script or picture writing. It is indeed a pity that the Incas never had the opportunity, as did the Greeks and Romans, to come in contact with a people like the Phoenicians, who were clever enough to invent an alphabet.

The language of the Incas was the
Quichua
tongue. Originally it was used only in a small area around Cuzco, where the Inca dynasty originated, possibly in the tenth or eleventh century. During the next 500 years, when the Incas succeeded in subduing the native races as far north as Ecuador and as far south as Argentina, they carried the Quichua language with them and insisted on its being learned by the conquered peoples, so that it had a wide distribution by the end of the sixteenth century.

Today the total population of Peru is about seven million. A recent census reports that two and a half million speak Quichua and two-thirds of these speak no other language. Although there are many different languages spoken by small forest tribes in the Amazon basin, there are only two aboriginal languages numerically important in the Andes, Quichua and Aymara. In the region around Lake Titicaca and in northern Bolivia the Indians speak Aymara, which has a phonetic system and grammar similar to Quichua. Neither of these languages is related in any way to those of eastern South America nor to any outside the continent. Philological experts are of the opinion that nearly five million people in South America still speak the language of the Incas. Obviously it is by far the most important native language in either North or South America. That this phonetic system is so widespread is in itself a remarkable tribute to the extraordinary people who were so successful in breeding animals and plants.

There are few words in Quichua to denote abstract qualities. On the other hand, the people obviously were not militaristic, for the word meaning ‘soldier’ also means ‘enemy’. The extent of the empire is emphasized by the fact that the word for ‘foreigner’
means ‘those belonging to a city a great distance off’. The importance of agriculture is strikingly demonstrated by the fact that in Quichua there is but one word for ‘work’ or ‘cultivate’.

An interesting sidelight on manners and customs is the abundance of expressions in Quichua for all stages of drunkenness. One of their principal activities was the manufacture of beer, or
chicha
. It was brewed from sprouted corn that had been boiled and crushed under the rocking stones which served the Andean people as an upper millstone or pestle. The Indians of Mexico and Central America in grinding their corn use a muller, pushed back and forth on a slab. This requires more effort than the rocking stone invented in the Andes. The fact that the Incas and the Mayas did not use the same means of grinding corn, the most common necessity of the household, points to the long period of separate evolution.

In addition to agriculture and the breeding of useful plants and animals, the Incas carried to a remarkable extreme the manufacture of graceful, symmetrical pottery. They learned to recognize different kinds and qualities of potter’s clay. They selected localities marked by the finest type of clay for the worship of favourable divinities, and the manufacture of the most delicate dishes. It seems likely that a form of potter’s wheel must have been used in the manufacture of their jars.

There was nothing crude or uncouth about their pottery. Most of it was made with the utmost skill, hard finished with polished and painted surfaces, from which every trace of the process of manufacture had been removed. Unlike the primitive pottery of the Indian tribes in the Amazonian Basin, and in many parts of America, Inca pottery gives abundant evidence, in its symmetry and fine proportions, as well as in its finish, that the makers were the inheritors of a thousand years of culture and love of beauty. Their pieces were admirably designed for the uses to which they were put and had just enough decoration to please and satisfy the most fastidious owner.

On the Peruvian coast, the ancient peoples who were conquered by the Incas produced much more elaborate pottery designs than did the Incas. Inca designs were nearly always geometrical and conventional. They included squares repeated one within the other, cross-hatching, rows of triangles, parallel lines, rows of lozenges, elaborate scrolls, a conventionalized necklace design consisting of a large number of discs each suspended by separate strings from the principal cord. This necklace design may possibly have been a representation of the royal fringe worn as a sign of sovereignty, the crown of the Incas.

The bar and double-cross pattern which occurs frequently on the handles of Inca pottery is clearly imitative of ancient basketry and derives from the easiest form of making handles. This pattern took the fancies of the ancient potters and consequently reappears in various panels and frequently constitutes the central portion of a geometrical design.

In many museums little attention is paid to Inca pottery partly because it is rare and partly because its graceful, symmetrical shape is not unique but is even reminiscent of the classical forms found in the Mediterranean. Some of the two-handled jars are almost identical with one found in ancient Troy. Others resemble Greek forms.