soon met us, and I looked into their faces and gravely saluted. They stared at me in speechless astonishment, and I as curiously rega

ress, and before long emerged from the living tomb,

ad exceptionally thick hair, matted with grease and mud. Most of them had a repellant look on their pigment-painted faces, and I could very distinctly see that I was not a welcome visitor. No, I had not reached Eden! Only "beyond the clouds and beyond the tomb" would the bowers of Eden be discovered to me. Hearing domestic hens cackling around the houses, I bade Timoteo tell the priest that we were very hungry, and that if he killed two chickens for us I would give him a beautiful gift later on. The priest distinctly informed me, however, that I must give first, or no fowl would be killed. From that decision I tried to move him, urging that I was tired, the pack was hard to undo, and to-morrow, when I was rested, I would well repay them the kindness. My words were thrown away; not a bite should we eat until the promised knife was given. I was faint with hunger, but from the load on the packhorse I procured the knife, which I handed to my unwilling host with the promise of other gifts

king-glasses. I presented one of these to the woman, who looked in it with satisfaction and evident pleasure. Whether she was pleased with her reflection or with the glass I cannot tell, but I feel sure it must have been the latter

ide, I presented myself at the king's abode. There I was kindly received, being invited to take up my quarters with him and his royal family. The king was a tall man of somewhat commanding appearance, but, save for the loin cloth, he was naked, like the rest. The queen, a little woman, was as scantily dressed as her husband. She was v

come from?" "Why have you come?" were asked and answered, and I, in return, learned much of this strange tribe. Máté was served, but whereas in the outside world a rusty tin tube to suck it through is in possession of even the poorest, here they used only a reed. I was astonished to find the máté sweetened. Knowing th

, "Eguapú" ("Sit down"), so I squatted on the earthen floor. A broom

kings. Though the Spaniards sought to carefully rout out and destroy all direct descendants of the royal family of the Incas, their historians tell us that some remote connections escaped. The Indians of Peru have legends to the effect that at the time of the Spanish invasion an Inca chieftain led an emigration of his people down the mountains. Humboldt, writing in the 18th century, said: "It is i

inner room, which the parents occupied, and the two married couples remained in the common room. All slept in fibre hammocks, made greasy and bl

hes and show, the palaces being decorated with a great profusion of gold, silver, fine cloth and preci

ade of a knife between them, and that some of those stones were thirty-eight feet long, by eighteen feet broad, and six feet thick. What a descent for the "Children of the Sun"! "H

s and beautifully woven cotton banners. The rattles were shaken and the banners waved, while a droning chant was struck up by the high priest, and the louder the thunder rolled the louder their voices rose and the more lustily they shook the seeds in their calabashe

g, "Give me your coat. Eat a potato?" The change I thought was greatly to his advantage, but I was anxious to please him. I possessed two coats, while he was, as he said, a poor old man, and had no coat. The barter

not prevail upon her to do; it was "ugly." As a loin-cloth, she would use it, but put it on-no! In t

empt at cleansing the body I saw when among them was that of a woman who filled her mou

xury of their baths, replenished by streams of crystal water which wer

ck with the weight and shape of this, for it exactly resembled those made by the old cliff-dwellers, unknown centuries ago

etc. The blackened trunks of the trees rose up like so many evil spirits above the green foliage. The garden implements used were of the most primi

th the dry seeds inside. At a signal from the high priest, a solemn droning chant was struck up, to the monotonous time kept by the numerous gourd rattles. As the sun rose higher and higher, the chanting grew

ht canes, slung on the back and held up by plaited fibres forming a band which came across their foreheads. The baskets contained the day's vegetables. Meat was seldom eaten by them,

notched like the back of a fish-hook, and they are poisoned with serpent venom. Besides these weapons, it was certainly strange to find them living in the stone age, for in the hands of the older me

se grass. A "family man" usually has bands of human hair twisted around his legs below the knees, and also around the wrists. This hair is torn from his wife's head. Down the centre are numerous fires for cooking purposes, but the house was destitute of chimney. Wood is burned, and the place was at times s

ion, which was about a yard high, there burned a very carefully tended fire of holy wood. Enquiring the meaning of this, I was informed that, very many moons ago, Nande-yara had come in person to visit the tri

go, "There the fire shall ever be burning upon the altar; it shall never go out." If

eparted from them he left behind him his representative. In the chapter on Mariolatry, I have traced the natural tendency of man to sink from spiritual to image worship, and I found that the Caingwas, like all pagans, had rev

. The people would never allow the image to be taken away, as the life of the tribe was bound up with it Seeing that he was not to be moved, I desisted, though a covetous look in his eye when I offered a beautiful colored rug in exchange gave me hope, Rocanand

permission of him, but had been as often repulsed. They did not want me, or any new "words," he would reply. Turning to him now, I said, "Rocanandiva, if you will allow me to tell 'words' to the people you sh

ngs, such as . . . Now God has a Son, and to Him He said, Look down and see. All are doing wicked things! He looked and saw. The Father said that for their sin they should have to die, but that Jesus, His Son, could come down and die in their place. The Son came, and lived on earth many moons; but was hated, and at last caught, and large pieces of iron (like the priest's knife) were put into His hands and

to the village where we all are now. 'Your chief is lying dead up the road,' he said, 'go and bury him, and after three days are passed visit the grave, when you will find a plant growing out of his mouth; that will be corn, and it will save you!'" Then, turning to me, the priest said: "This we did, and behold us alive! That is the story!" A strange legend, surely, and yet the reader will be struck wit

earned that the young man was custodian of the devil-the only and original one-and that he had palmed him off on me for a box of matches! How the superstition of the visible presence of the devil originated I have no idea, but there might be some meaning in the man's earnest desire to exchange it for matches, or lights, the emblem of their fire or sun-worship. Was this simple deal fallen man's feeble effort to rid himself of the Usurper and get back the Father, for it is very significant that the Caingwa word, ta-ta (light), signifies also father. Do they need light, or are they sufficiently illumined for time and eternity? Will the reader reverently stand with me, in

nimal. He can always find his way. A girl gets lost when alone. For that reason we place a dog's

pting when we cooked our own food, I almost starved. Their habits are e

on. The priest heard of my decision with unfeigned joy, but the king and queen were sorrowful. These pressed me to return again some t

m away. The exchange was made, and I tied their god, along with bows and arrows, etc., on the back of a horse, and we said farewell. I had strict orders to cover up the idol from the eyes of the peop

nd of Judas burned with "thirty pieces of silver," the earthly value of the Divine One. Pilate, for

and god, so perhaps without the one

the path we had cut through the forest, and it was again necessary to use our machetes. The larger growth, however, being down, th

nd birds have

h man kno

ng semi-darkness. Our clothes were now almost torn to shreds (I had sought to mend mine with horse-hair

outward way. We selected a slightly different route,

d in all directions. Searching for them detained us a whole day, but fortunately we were able to round them all

dampness of the fuel, it was only after much patient work that we were able to light a fire and dry our clothes. There we remained for three days, Timoteo sighing for Pegwaomi, and the wind sighing still louder, to our discomfort. Everything

emmed the current, as did the rest, but Old Stabbed Arm, riding a weaker horse, nearly lost his life. The animal was washed down by the strong current, and but for the man's previous long experience in swimming rivers he would never have reached the bank. The pony also somehow struggled through to the side, landing half-drowned, and Old Stabbed Arm received a few hearty pats on the back. The load on th

eds of footprints in the three-inch depth of dust on the floor. There we lit a fire to again dry our clothes, and prepared to pass the night, expecting a visit from the hogs. Had they appeared when we were ready for them, the visit would not have been unwelcome. Food was hard to procure, and animals did not come very often to be shot. Had they found us asleep, however, the waking wo

ome here") to him, and she wept as she embraced her boy. Truly, there was no sight so sweet to "mother" as that of her ragged, travel-stained son; and Timoteo, the strong man, wept. The fatted calf was then killed a few yards from the doorstep, by having its throat cut. Offal littere

tess very seriously asked me if he might marry her daughter. Thinking he had sent her to ask,

from that time onward, I believe, he had only two things in his mind-his food and his master. He would cry when I left him, and hug and kiss me on my return. Pancho rode the pack-mare into the village of Conc

brought me back, even though I was a heretic, which fact she greatly lamented. We had been given up as lost months before, for word came down that I had been killed by Indians. Here I was, however, safe and fairly well, saving that the ends of two of my toes had rotted off with jiggers, and fever burned in my veins! Mrs. Dolores doctored my feet with tobacco

ether, he ever loving and true. I took him across the ocean, away from his tropical home, and-he died. I am not sentimental-nay, I have been accused of hardness-but I make this reference to Pancho in loving memory. Unlike some friends of my life, he was constant and true. [Footnote: From letters awaiting