and now each Indian builds one for himself, with the aid of his friends and relations. Thus the poor people did not require the help of artizans, because they had no needs beyond the necessity for sustaining life, without that superabundance of such things as are necessary for the great and powerful.

Besides these artizans who excelled in various trades, the Curacas presented to the Yncas many wild animals, such as tigers, lions, bears, monkeys, cats, macaws, vultures, and the birds they call condors, which are the largest of all the birds either here or there. They also presented large and small serpents, such as inhabit the country of the Antis. The largest, called Amaru, are twenty-five or thirty feet and more in length. They also brought great toads and lizards. The Curacas from the sea-coast presented seals and alligators, which are also twenty-five to thirty feet long. In short, there was nothing worthy of remark for its ferocity, size, or beauty which they did not present together with the gold and silver; as much as to say that the Ynca was lord of all those things, and to show the devotion with which he was served.

OF THE MANNER OF GUARDING THE TRIBUTE, AND HOW IT WAS USED

It will be well that we should explain how this tribute was guarded, and in what way it was used. Throughout the empire there were three kinds of storehouses, in which the crops and other tribute were shut up. In each village, whether it was large or small, there were two storehouses. In one was deposited the provision which was stored up for the people, to guard against famine in years of scarcity; and in the other the crops of the Ynca and of the Sun were kept. There were other storehouses on the royal roads, at intervals of three leagues, which now serve as inns and taverns for the Spaniards.

The crops of the Sun and the Ynca, for a circuit of fifty leagues round the city of Cuzco, were brought in for the use of the Court, and that the Ynca might have the means of feeding the captains and Curacas who came to him.

The crops of the other villages, outside this circuit, were guarded in royal granaries, and thence conveyed to the storehouses on the royal roads, where provisions, arms, clothes, and shoes were kept for the soldiers who marched along these highways to the four quarters of the

globe, or Ttahua-ntin Suyu. These storehouses were so well stored that even when many companies of soldiers passed, there was always enough for all. The soldiers were not allowed to lodge in the villages at the cost of the people. The Yncas said that after the villages had paid their proper share of tribute, it was not just to exact more; and hence arose the law that any soldier should be punished with death who took the smallest thing from a vassal. Pedro de Cieza de Leon, speaking of the roads in his sixtieth chapter, uses these words: "In every valley there was a principal station for the Yncas, with depôts of provisions for the troops. If anything was not ready, a severe punishment was inflicted; and if any of those whose duty it was to traverse the road entered the fields or dwellings of the Indians, although the damage they did was small, they were ordered to be put to death." So far is from Pedro de Cieza. The Indians said that to prevent the soldiers from doing harm to any one either in the fields or villages, and that their punishment for doing so might be just, they were given all that they required. As fast as the soldiers used up what was stored up in the roadside depôts, they were replenished from the stores in the villages, so that there was never any deficiency.

Agustin de Zarate, having spoken of the grandeur of the royal roads (which we shall describe in the proper place), says what follows in his first book, chapter 14:

Besides the work and expense of these roads, Huayna Ccapac ordered that from stage to stage, in the Sierra, palaces of great size should be built, and lodgings where he and his household might rest, with all his arms. And on the plains near the coast there were similar buildings, although they could not be so close together as those in the Sierra, because they must be on the banks of rivers, which are eight or ten, and in parts fifteen or twenty leagues from each other. These lodgings were called Tampu, and the Indians of the surrounding districts had to store them with all things necessary for an army, not only provisions, but arms, clothes, and all other requirements. So that in each lodging a body of 20,000 or 30,000 men could be fitted out for the field, without going outside the house. The Yncas took with them a great body of men armed with pikes and shields, axes of silver and copper, and some of gold, slings, darts of palm with twisted points, etc.

So far is from Agustin de Zarate, touching the provision that was made for the armies on the royal roads.

If the estates of the King were not sufficient to provide for the excessive cost of a war, then those of the Sun were made available, which the

Ynca considered to be his, as the legitimate child and heir of the Deity. The supplies which were not consumed in the war, and remained over, were preserved in the three classes of storehouses already described, for distribution among the people in years of scarcity, for the Yncas took great thought for their welfare.

The priests and ministers of their idolatry were maintained out of the estates of the Sun while they officiated in the temples, which they did in weekly rotation. But when they were in their own houses they fed at their own cost, and received lands to till, like the rest of the people. With all this, the consumption of the crops from the estates of the Sun on the priests was small in comparison with the yield; so that there was a large surplus to help the Ynca in any difficulty.

THE VASSALS WERE SUPPLIED WITH CLOTHES. NO BEGGING WAS ALLOWED

As there were regulations for the supply of clothing, in abundance, to the soldiers; so also the wool was given to the Curacas and vassals generally every two years, to enable them to make clothes for themselves and their families; and it was the duty of the Decurions to see that the people were clothed. The Indians, and even the Curacas, had few llamas; while the Sun and the Yncas possessed innumerable flocks. The Indians said that when the Spaniards first came to that country there was scarcely sufficient pasture for the flocks, and I have heard my father and his contemporaries relate the great excesses and waste committed by some Spaniards among these flocks, which I shall relate in its place. In the warm country cotton was distributed from the royal estates for clothing for the Indians and their families. Thus they had all that was required for human life, both in clothes, shoes, and food; and no one could be called poor, or require to seek alms. For all had as much as they would have required if they had been rich, but they were as poor as possible in unnecessary things, having nothing more than they required. Father Acosta, speaking of Peru, says briefly and compendiously what we have related with so much prolixity. At the end of the fifteenth chapter of the sixth book he has these words:

The sheep were shorn at the proper season, and each person was given wool to spin and weave into cloth for his wife and children. Visits were made to see if this was done, and the idle were punished. The wool that was over was put

into the storehouses; which were full of it, and of all other things necessary for human life, when the Spaniards arrived. No thoughtful man can fail to admire so noble and provident a Government. For, without being religious or Christians, the Indians attained to a high state of perfection in providing all that was necessary, and plentifully sustaining their houses of religion, as well as_those of their King and Lord.

Thus ends his fifteenth chapter, which is entitled The revenue of the Ynca and the tribute."

In the following chapter, speaking of the occupations of the Indians, he touches upon many things that we have already mentioned, and others that we shall describe presently. He here says what follows, copied word for word:

Another thing which the Indians of Peru practised was to teach each boy all the arts which it was necessary a man should know to sustain human life. For, among these people, they had no special tradesmen, as we have, such as tailors, shoemakers, or weavers; but each man learnt all, so that he could himself make all that he required. All men knew how to weave and make clothes; so that when the Ynca gave them wool, it was as good as giving them clothes. All could till and manure the land, without hiring labourers. All knew how to build houses. And the women knew all these arts also, practising them with great diligence, and helping their husbands. Other occupations, which were not connected with ordinary wants, had their special artizans, such as silversmiths, painters, potters, boatmen, accountants, and musicians. Even in the ordinary labours of weaving, tilling, and building, there were masters for special work, who served the Lords. But among the common people, as has been said, each could do all that was necessary in his household, without having to pay another, and it is the same at the present day. So that no one had any necessity for the help of another, either to make his shoes, or clothes, or house, or to sow and reap for him, or to make his furniture or tools. In this the Indians closely imitated the institutions of the monks of old, as described in the lives of the fathers. In truth, these people were neither covetous nor wasteful, but were contented to pass their lives in great moderation, so that surely if their mode of living had been adopted from choice, and not from habit, we must have confessed that it was a very perfect state of existence. Nor were the seeds wanting for the reception of the doctrine of the Holy Gospel, which is so hostile to pride, avarice, and waste. But the preachers do not always make their acts agree with the doctrine they preach to the Indians.

A little further on he says:

It was an inviolable law that no one should change the peculiar dress of his province, even if he moved to another; and the Yncas held this rule to be very conducive to good government. The custom is still observed, although not so strictly as it was then.

So far the Father Acosta. The Indians wonder much at the way the Spaniards change the fashion of their dress every year, and attribute it to pride and presumption.

The custom of never seeking alms was still observed in my day; and up to the time when I left Peru, in 1560, throughout all the parts that I travelled over, I never saw an Indian, man or woman, begging. I only knew one old woman in Cuzco, named Isabel, who begged, and her habit was more to go jesting from house to house, like a gipsy, than to seek alms from necessity. The Indians quarrelled with her, and spat on the ground, which is a sign of contempt and abhorrence; so that she never begged of the Indians, but only of the Spaniards; and as, even in my time, there was no regular money in the country, they gave her maize as alms, which was what she wanted. If she saw that it was given cheerfully, she asked for a bit of meat also, and if that was given, she begged for something to drink, and presently carried the joke so far as to hint at a little cuca, which is the much prized herb that the Indians chew. And thus she went on with her lazy vicious life.

The Yncas, in their administration, did not forget the travellers, but along all the royal roads they ordered houses for travellers to be built, called corpa-huasi, where they were given food and all things necessary for their journeys, from the royal stores kept in each village. If they fell ill, they were attended with great care and kindness; so that they had everything as if they had been in their own houses. It is true that they did not travel for their own pleasure or amusement, nor on their own business, for no such thing was known; but by order of the King or of the Curacas, who sent them from one part to another, or by direction of captains or officials, either of war or peace. These travellers were carefully looked after, but any who travelled without just cause, were punished as vagabonds.

THE ORDERING AND DIVISION OF THE FLOCKS, AND OF THE STRANGE ANIMALS

In order to preserve some account of the multitude of llamas belonging to the Yncas, they were divided according to their colours, for these animals are of many different colours like the horses in Spain, and there was a name for each colour. Those which were of two colours they called Muru-muru, or, as the Spaniards pronounce it, Moromoro.