cred place
where the sky and heaven met and produced the showers which vivified the
earth. Pilgrimages and offerings to mountain summits formed a part of the
duties of the Mexican priesthood, but in the cities the pyramid temple
served as a convenient substitute for the mountain.

The close association of the terrace form with rain and water symbolism is
certainly exemplified in the Mexican design on a temple roof (fig. 35,
_e_). The most remarkable application of the dualistic designs is,
however, met with in Peru where, according to Wiener, the irrigation
canals which carried water to the maize fields were laid out so as to form
pattern bands like fig. 40, nos. 4 and 7, for instance. It is evident that
this system of irrigation must have been an extremely effective and
practical one, but that it had been probably adopted from superstitious
motives as an illustration of the vivifying union of the celestial shower
with the seed-laden soil. The assumption that the ancient Peruvians shared
the same ideas as the Mexicans and Mayas will be found justified by the
following data.

It is now my intention to give a brief and bare outline sketch of the
Peruvian civilization, by means of a series of quotations from the best
authorities.(19) Incomplete though this must necessarily be, it will,
nevertheless, establish, beyond a doubt, that the founders of the great
Inca empire were under the dominion of the same set of ideas which I have
been tracing throughout the American continent. The lucid records of the
Peruvian chronicles and the purity with which the system had been
maintained by the Incas, enable us to recognize and appreciate its
manifold perfections as a mode of primitive government.

The best authorities agree that the inhabitants of the country, now known
as Peru, lived in barbarism until civilization was introduced amongst them
by the Incas. One tradition designates an island in the Titicaca lake,
another Tiahuanaco, as the place where, "after the deluge," a man or deity
appeared, divided the land into four parts and distributed these to four
brothers, amongst whom was Manco Capac, to whom was assigned the province
to the north. Each brother had a sister who was also his wife. Manco Capac
and his sister and wife Mama-Ocllo or, according to other authorities, the
third Inca Lloque Yupanqui and his consort, founded Cuzco, also given as
Kosko or Kuska, a name which, according to Garcilaso de la Vega signifies
"navel of