This civilization had taken ages to evolve, as the development of certain plants and animals alone would show. It was reduced in a few years to an empire of ruin. One shivers at the “hideous energy of destruction evinced by man.” But in spite of all that has been done to annihilate the achievements of the Incas, benefits accruing from them still remain. “Makers of ruins” indeed, yet by them the present flimsy civilization exists. Upon their terraces, climbing to the mountain-tops, Indians now live in mud huts, little towns clutching at a far-off slope, apparently deserted but for the cemetery. Irrigating prospectors stand aghast before their mighty systems. The railway builder may take lessons in road construction. There is practical value in ruins, if from them comes inspiration for modern industry. And there is poetry in ruins, because they speak of men and things which are gone, never to return, “the shrines of by-gone ideals, makable when they were made and then only.” CHAPTER IV THE INCA AND HIS EMPIRE No one dared to look upon the Inca, as he radiated the light of his divine Sun-father. He lived and ruled as a deity, representative of God, supreme arbiter of all creatures breathing the air or living in the water. “The very birds will suspend their flight if I command it,” Atahualpa once said. His person being holy, his body after death, preserved in its living likeness, was still worshipped. Carried about on a golden litter, the Prince Powerful in Riches moved from palace to palace, and his feet never touched any but sacred ground, consecrated by his contact, if not previously hallowed. To carry his person was so singular an honor that his weight was not a burden, as cultivating his fields was a labor performed with hymns of joy. This Sun of Cheerfulness passed beneath flower-covered arches, while his bearers crushed out sweet odors from flowers beneath their feet. Indeed, “the shouts of the multitude as he passed along caused the birds flying over to fall to the ground!” If these “facts” seem more like romance than truth, they have at least masqueraded under the guise of history for more than three hundred years. The Inca was clothed in garments made of the silky hair of the vicuña, which lives above the line of perpetual snow. Woven as they were to be worn, from threads of invisible fineness, the soft garments were made by cloistered Virgins of the Sun. They were enriched with bits of gold, silver, emeralds, a fringe of gorgeous feathers, and with mother-of-pearl. Pearls were not used, as their “search endangered the lives of the seekers.” The Inca wore a suit but twice, then conferring it upon some person of royal blood. These were the garments taken as sumptuous gifts to the monarchs of Spain.