The contemplation of the ancient ruins of Peru stirs the imagination and brings before the mental vision pictures of these people of a forgotten past, with many fanciful ideas of their appearance and their origin, of the lives they led, the religion they practised, and the predominating social features of their civilization. Were they “a white and bearded race” as some of the legends tell? Or did the natives emerge out of barbarism and advance in culture, at first, unaided by outside influences? Were the conditions in ancient Peru as favorable for the evolution of human culture as those of ancient India and Egypt? One would like to know, in reference to the ancient edifices, whose crumbling ruins are still wonderful after the lapse of ages, who built them, and what the elaborate picture writings on their walls mean to tell us. It is said that the pre-Incaic people used hieroglyphics, but that the knowledge of this art was lost or prohibited by the Incas. Their civilization also gives evidence, in the ornamented pottery, the carvings of intricate design, and the fine workmanship of their gold and silver vessels, that its art surpassed, in technique and imagination, the productions of later prehistoric periods. In the earliest ages two closely related civilizations existed in the coast region of Peru, one of them centred around Trujillo and the other in the vicinity of Nasca and Ica, and, fine as they were, there is nothing similar to them in later cultures. The southern form is especially notable for the perfection of shape and decoration of its pottery, the freedom and breadth of its style; while the northern form is more distinguished by the harmony and greatness of its development. Gold, silver, and copper abounded and were wrought into manifold shapes; gold was cast and chased, soldered with copper and silver, or used as plating over copper and inlaid with turquoises; mosaic was also known. This culture was followed by that of the Tiahuanaco, which in the course of centuries declined and was forgotten, until the appearance of the Incas, who became the heirs of all the cultures which had preceded theirs in Peru. [Illustration: FOUND IN THE BURIAL PLACE OF PACHACÁMAC.] [Illustration: OLLANTAYTAMBO. ONCE THE FAVORITE RESIDENCE OF THE INCAS.] CHAPTER II THE RISE OF THE CUZCO DYNASTY [Illustration: AN INCAIC DOORWAY.]