ch delicious food can always be obtained, and cocoanuts
from which cooling drinks are secured without cost. Who could not
develop cheerfulness under such conditions?

On the small island, Koati, some of the Inca stonework is remarkably
good, and has several unusual features, such as the elaboration of the
large, reentrant, ceremonial niches formed by step-topped arches, one
within the other. Small ornamental niches are used to break the space
between these recesses and the upper corners of the whole rectangle
containing them. Also unusual are the niches between the doorways,
made in the form of an elaborate quadrate cross. It might seem at first
glance as though this feature showed Spanish influence, since a Papal
cross is created by the shadow cast in the intervening recessed courses
within their design. As a matter of fact, the cross nowy quadrant is
a natural outcome of using for ornamental purposes the step-shaped
design, both erect and inverted. All over the land of the Incas one
finds flights of steps or terraces used repeatedly for ornamental or
ceremonial purposes. Some stairs are large enough to be used by man;
others are in miniature. Frequently the steps were cut into the sacred
boulders consecrated to ancestor worship. It was easy for an Inca
architect, accustomed to the stairway motif, to have conceived these
curious doorways on Koati and also the cross-like niches between them,
even if he had never seen any representation of a Papal cross, or a
cross nowy quadrant. My friend, Mr. Bancel La Farge, has also suggested
a striking resemblance which the sedilia-like niches bear to Arabic
or Moorish architecture, as shown, for instance, in the Court of the
Lions in the Alhambra. The step-topped arch is distinctly Oriental
in form, yet flights of steps or terraces are also thoroughly Incaic.

The principal structure on Koati was built around three sides of
a small plaza, constructed on an artificial terrace in a slight
depression on the eastern side of the island. The fourth side is
open and affords a magnificent view of the lake and the wonderful
snow-covered Cordillera Real, 200 miles long and nowhere less than
17,000 feet high. This range of lofty snow-peaks of surpassing beauty
culminates in Mt. Sorata, 21,520 feet high. To the worshipers of the
sun and moon, who came to the sacred islands for some of their most
elaborate religious ceremonies, the sight of those heavenly luminaries,
rising over the majestic s