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Publisher: Martes
Pages: 276
Weight: 0.82
Height: 0.58 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
THE CONTINENT IN PRE-SPANISH DAYS
T
he discovery of South America stands as one of the most dramatic events
in history. From the time of its occurrence until the present so deeply
has this event impressed itself on men's minds that the previous state of the
Continent has been a somewhat neglected topic. The Incas and their civi-
lization, it is true, have attracted no small share of attention to themselves,
and the subject has become more or less familiar to the average English reader
through the medium of the work of Prescott, who has been followed by a
number of later writers, many of whom have dealt very exhaustively with
this subject. Yet, after all, the Incas, for all their historical importance, occu-
pied but a very small portion of the territories of the Southern Continent.
Beyond the western fringe of the Continent which was theirs by heritage, or
by conquest, were other lands-mountainous in parts, level in others, where
the great river basins extended themselves-which were the chosen hunting
and fishing grounds of an almost innumerable number of tribes.
The degree of civilization, or, more accurately speaking, of savagery which
characterized these as a whole necessarily varied to a great extent in the case
3 W. H. (WILLIAM HENRY) KOEBEL
of each particular tribe. Nevertheless, from the comparatively high culture
of the Incas down to the most intellectually submerged people of the forests
and swamps, there were certain characteristics held in common by all. This
applied not only to a marked physical likeness which stamped every dweller
in the great Continent, but to customs, religious ceremonies, and govern-
ment as well. Concerning the origin of the South American Indians inter-
minable disputes have now raged for generations, but that in the case of
all the various tribes the origin was the same has never, I think, been con-
troverted. The most common theory concerning the origin of the South
Americans is that this was Mongolian.
This idea would certainly seem one of the most feasible of the many put
forward. Those who have delved sufficiently deeply into the matter have
found many striking analogies in customs, religious ceremonies, and even
in language between the inhabitants of South America and those of East-
ern Asia; and there are even those who assert that the similarity between the
two peoples extends to the designs on domestic pottery. The majority of
those who have devoted themselves to this subject of the South American
aborigines have been obliged to work largely in the dark. Considering the
great extent of the ruins bequeathed by the Incas to the later ages, it might
be thought curious that so few precise data are available. The reason for this
lies in the zeal which theconquistadores displayed in the stamping out of the
various pagan religions. No sooner had the Spaniards obtained possession
of the chief cities of the Incas than every symbol, image, or, indeed, any ob-
ject suggestive of sun-worship or anything of the kind, was smashed into
fragments, and every trace of its significance so far as possible obliterated.
There is no doubt that in the course of this wholesale destruction a multi-
tude of objects perished which would have given an historical clue to much
of what now remains doubtful. It is owing to this obliterative enthusiasm
that such scanty historical knowledge exists concerning the earlier period of
the Inca race, and of that highly civilized nation which preceded the later
Children of the Sun.
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