[Illustration: INCA IMPLEMENTS]
* * * * *
We can do no better, in closing this account of the old Peruvian
empire, than to quote from Mr. Prescott’s imperishable work, “The
Conquest of Peru,” the following summary of the characteristics of Inca
culture:
“Under the rule of the Incas, the meanest of the people enjoyed a
far greater degree of personal comfort than was possessed by similar
classes in other nations on the American continent--greater probably,
than in feudal Europe. Under their scepter, the higher order of the
state had made advances in many of the arts that belong to a cultivated
community. By the well-sustained policy of the Incas, the rude tribes
of the forest were gradually gathered within the folds of civilization,
and of these materials was constructed a flourishing and populous
empire, such as was to be found in no other part of America.”
[Illustration: INCA POTTERY AND INSTRUMENTS]
_SUPPLEMENTARY READING_
EARLY MAN IN SOUTH AMERICA _By Ales Hrlicka_
Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin 52