A general edict was issued by Pachacutec at this time which proved one of the most powerful agencies in the consolidation of his great empire; it was decreed that all vassals of the realm should learn Quichua, and teachers were appointed in every province to see that the language was taught and used throughout the country. All government officials were obliged to know the national idiom and no one was permitted to occupy a place of authority or to have dignities or seignory conferred upon him if he could not speak it. Every soldier of the army, which grew to number two hundred thousand men, spoke this language. [Illustration: ANCIENT STREET OF CUZCO, SHOWING INCAIC WALLS.] During the reign of Pachacutec, the government of the empire was established on a firmer basis than ever, and legislation, though in reality only an expression of the supreme will of the Inca (there was no word for “law,” which was rendered _apupsimi_, “the word of the chief”), made clear to every subject what his duties were to his sovereign and to the state. The Inca Pachacutec ordered that all children over five years of age should have some employment appropriate to their age and their father’s profession. The blind, mute, and lame were given light work, and even the most ignorant and weak-minded were employed, as a safeguard against laziness. On the other hand, he set aside three days in each month for fiestas, and harvest time was a season of general rejoicing. The lands of the empire were all owned by the Inca and agriculture was the chief occupation of his subjects; the Inca himself turned the first furrow every year, with a golden plough. The products of the harvest were divided into three parts; first, the Inca’s share was set aside to sustain the splendor of the throne and tomeet public necessities; then the share for the Sun was devoted to the needs of the church, the priests and all who served in the temples; and finally the communities received their share, out of which each tiller of the soil was provided with what he needed. Private property did not exist, and no one had any individual rights whatever; on the other hand, every subject was given food and clothing and a house in which to live, though only as the Inca’s dependent ward, who could never hope to outgrow his “minority.” It is not surprising that patience and obedience became the predominating virtues of the race! The system of administration, which made it possible for the Inca to maintain his absolute authority over such a vast territory and population is explained partly in the frequent transporting of _mitimaes_, or colonists, from their native province to another, which prevented concerted plans for revolt, and partly in the division of the population into decades, or groups of ten, five of these groups constituting a body of fifty, two of these bodies making a centenary, and so on, the whole empire being governed in provinces of