Note 535 — Chapter CXVI

The people included within the empire of Yncas are comprised by D’Orbigny in his Ando-Peruvian race, which he divides into three branches, namely the Peruvian, Antisian, and Araucanian. The Peruvian branch is subdivided by him into four nations, namely the Quichua, Aymara, Atacama, and Chango. This Peruvian branch is characterised by a rich brown olive colour, middling height (1 mètre 597 millimètres), massive form, trunk very long in comparison with the whole height, forehead receding, face large and oval, nose long, very aquiline, and full at the base, mouth large, eyes horizontal, cornea yellowish, ball not jutting out: character serious, thoughtful, and sad. The height of the pure Quichua Indians varies from 4 feet 9 inches to 5 feet 3 inches. Their shoulders are very broad, and square; breast excessively voluminous, and longer than ordinary, so as to increase the length of the trunk. The arms and feet are always small. The head is oblong, forehead slightly receding, but the cranium is nevertheless voluminous, and indicates a well developed brain. The face is generally large, and nearer a circle than an oval. The nose is long and very aquiline, nostrils large and open. The lips are thick and the mouth large, but the teeth are always good. The chin is short but not receding. The cheeks are somewhat high. The eyes are always horizontal, the cornea yellowish, the eyebrows much arched, and the hair black, long, and very straight. They have no beard beyond a few straggling hairs, appearing late in life.

Such were the main characteristics of nearly all the tribes which formed the empire of the Yncas. These tribes were, as mentioned by Cieza de Leon, the Quichuas, Collas or Aymaras, Canas and Canches, Chancas, Huancas, Yuncas, Antis, Chachapuyas, and Cañaris. It is generally found that a vast number of languages exist in a mountainous country, and the Caucasus offers a striking example of this rule; to which the Andes was no exception, for Cieza de Leon assures us that nearly every village originally had a language of its own. But the dominant tribe of the Quichuas, with its civilised rule and astute policy, had gradually superseded all the other dialects by their own language—the richest and most copious to be found in the whole American group of tongues. Thus at the time of the conquest the Quichua was alone spoken throughout the empire of the Yncas, and we now have but few scattered remnants of any other language on the plateaux of the Andes, except the Aymara. The vocabulary of a Chinchay-suyu dialect, spoken in the north of Peru, as given by Torres Rubio, differs little, if at all, from the Quichua, and the same remark applies to the Quito dialect. I am of opinion that the whole of the ancient tribes mentioned above, were essentially members of one and the same race.

D’Orbigny says of the Quichua or Ynca Indians that their character is gentle, hospitable, and obedient. They are good fathers, good husbands, sociable or rather gregarious, always living together in villages, taciturn, patient, and industrious. (L’Homme Américain, i, p. 255). I have myself seen much of these interesting people, and have found them to be intelligent, patient, obedient, loving amongst each other, and particularly kind to animals. They are brave and enduring. I was in the dense untrodden forests with four of these Indians for many days, and they proved to be willing, hard working, intelligent, good humoured, efficient, and companionable. Of the higher qualities of this race, their copious language; plaintive songs; superb works of art in gold, silver, stone, and clay; beautiful fabrics; stupendous architecture; enlightened laws; and marvellous civilisation in the days of the Yncas; are sufficient proof.