In the higher schools, the noble boys were taught much that was given to the other boys and also in many of the arts and sciences, such as the study of heroic songs and sacred hymns, history, religion, philosophy, law, astronomy, astrology, and the writing and interpreting of hieroglyphics. Those destined to be priests were further educated in the priestly duties, while those who were to enter upon a military life were exercised in gymnastics, and trained to the use of weapons, to shoot with the bow, to manage the shield, and to cast darts at a mark. When the young reached the age when marriage was permissible or when business cares should be entered upon, they were sent from the schools with the commendations of the officers and teachers, which were of great aid to many in securing positions in life. LITERATURE 1. Bancroft, Hubert Howe, The native races of the Pacific states of North America. 2. Barnes, Earl and Mary S., Education among the Aztecs. _Studies in Education_, I, 73-80. 3. Joyce, Thomas A., Mexican archæology. 4. Mason, Otis Tufton, Woman's share in primitive culture. 5. Nadaillac, Marquis de, Prehistoric America. 6. Prescott, William H., History of the Conquest of Mexico. CHAPTER II THE CHILD IN PERU =The People.= The origin of the people found in Peru at the time of the Spanish conquest is unknown. The people themselves held to a tradition that the empire began with a settlement in the Cuzco valley, the central region of Peru. By the time of the coming of the Spaniards in the first part of the sixteenth century, through military expeditions this Inca power had been extended to include the country from the river Ancasmayu, just north of the city of Quito, Ecuador, to the river Maule, just south of the city of Santiago, Chile, or from about the second degree of north latitude to the thirty-seventh degree of south latitude, territory embraced at the present time by Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, part of Chile, and north-west Argentina. Before these Inca people there seemed to have existed a race of well advanced people who left imposing architectural remains that the Inca people were unable to account for. To hold together the parts of the empire, great roads were built leading from Cuzco, the capital, to the extremities of the country. One of these great roads ran over the grand plateau north to Quito and south to Chile, and a second one ran each way, north and south, along the lowlands on the border of the ocean, and these two were connected by cross-roads. "The road over the plateau was conducted over pathless sierras buried in snow; galleries were cut for leagues through the living rock; rivers were crossed by means of bridges that swung suspended in the air; precipices were scaled by stairways hewn out of the native bed; ravines of hideous depths were filled up with solid masonry; in short, all the difficulties that beset a wild and mountainous region, and which might appall the most courageous engineer