top, where the hair is left
to grow, and is plaited Chinese fashion. Not unfrequently the arms
are extended, the hands rest upon pillars inscribed with characters
much resembling Chinese. I have had one of these curious objects
long in my possession. Notwithstanding being much worn by time and
the salts contained in the earth, it was one of the most perfect I
have seen. It was found in the valley of Chincha. I showed it one
day to a learned Chinaman, and was quite amused in watching his
face while he examined the image. His features betrayed so vividly
the different emotions that preyed upon his mind,--curiosity,
surprise, awe, superstitious fear. I asked him if he understood the
characters engraved on the pillars? "Yes," said he, "these are the
ancient letters used in China before the invention of those in
usage today. That"--pointing to the image he had replaced, with
signs of respect and veneration, on the table--"is very old; very
great thing,--only very wise men and saints are allowed to touch
it." After much ado and coaxing, he at last told me, in a voice as
full of reverence as a Brahmin would in uttering the sacred word
O-A-UM, that the meaning of the inscription was _Fo_.

Some families of Indians, that live in the remote _bolsones_ (small
valleys of the Andes), sport even today a cue as the inhabitants of
the Celestial empire, and the people in Eten, a small village near
Piura, speak a language unknown to their neighbors, and are said to
easily hold converse with the coolies of the vicinage. When and how
did this intercourse exist, is rather difficult to answer. I am
even timorous to insinuate it, lest the believers in the chronology
of the Bible, who make the world a little more than 5800 years old,
should come down upon me, and, after pouring upon my humble self
their most damning anathemas, consign me, at the dictates of their
sectarian charity, to that place over the door of which Dante
read,--

Perme si va tra la perduta gente.
* * * * *
Lasciate ogni speranza voi ch' entrate.

And yet mine is not the fault if reason tells me that the climate
of Tiahuanaco, situated near the shores of the lake of Titicaca,
13,500 feet above the sea, must not have always been what it is
now, otherwise the ground