uare of their respective
cities, and their hands were joined by a cacique in face of the people.
This simple ceremony, together with the pronouncement of the contract by
the cacique, constituted a marriage. The gentile system was, in some
sort, in force among the Peruvians, and no one was allowed to contract
marriage with any but a member of his or her gens; but this rule was
capable of broad extension, even to including those residing in the same
province. The ceremony was followed by festivities lasting several days;
and the fact of all weddings being simultaneous turned the whole land
into a festal place. We are not told what was done when some one was so
inconsiderate as to die during this period and thus interfere with the
merriment of his particular kindred; probably the corpse was compelled
to wait until its turn came and grief could legitimately take the place
of joy. However this may be, it is certain that marriage was in all ways
held in high respect by the Peruvians, and divorce was almost or quite
unknown. For the rest, the lot of the Peruvian woman was practically the
same as that held by the woman of the Aztecs and does not call for
amplification.

There is, however, another primitive civilization of South America which
calls for notice, as being in its way as interesting as that of the
Peruvians, and moreover of greater importance to the present, since in
some aspects it still survives. This was the civilization of the
Araucanians, to adopt the general, though not absolutely correct
nomenclature. While the more remarkable civilization of the early
Peruvians has centred general attention upon itself among the primitive
cultures of South America, that of the Araucanians was hardly less
wonderful in certain aspects, though as an absolute culture it was far
below the standard of its more northern compeer. The Araucanians were
simply Indians, but Indians of a very remarkable class. Among the tribes
of North America their nearest peers would probably be found among the
Navajos; but the Araucanians were in many respects far superior to their
brothers of the northern plains. They were, above all, warriors, and for
long they successfully resisted the Spanish invasion. They were a free,
restless, brave, and highly independent people, and far better fitted
for survival than their more highly cultured neighbors, and this they
have proved by resistance to the ill effects of eastern civilization and
a persistence unto