[1138] [Mr. Markham made a special study of this point in the Journal of the Roy. Geog. Soc. (1871), xli. p. 281, collating its authorities. Cf. the views of Marcoy in Travels in South America, tr. by Rich, London, 1875.—Ed.]
[1139] Except those portions which Garcilasso de la Vega has embodied in his Commentaries.
[1140] It is, of course, necessary to consider the weight to be attached to the statements of different authors; but the most convenient method of placing the subject before the reader will be to deal in the present chapter with general conclusions, and to discuss the comparative merits of the authorities in the Critical Essay on the sources of information.
[1141] For special study, see Paz Soldan’s Geografía del Peru; Menendez’ Manual de Geografía del Peru; and Wiener’s L’Empire des Incas, ch. i.—Ed.
[1142] “Jusqu’à present on n’a pas retrouvé le maïs, d’une manière certaine, a l’état sauvage” (De Candolle’s Géographie botanique raisonnée, p. 951).
[1143] De Candolle, p. 983.
[1144] There is a wild variety in Mexico, the size of a nut, and attempts have been made to increase its size under cultivation during many years, without any result. This seems to show that a great length of time must have elapsed before the ancient Peruvians could have brought the cultivation of the potato to such a high state of perfection as they undoubtedly did.
[1145] Some years ago a priest named Cabrera, the cura of a village called Macusani, in the province of Caravaya, succeeded in breeding a cross between the wild vicuña and the tame alpaca. He had a flock of these beautiful animals, which yielded long, silken, white wool; but they required extreme care, and died out when the sustaining hand of Cabrera was no longer available. There is also a cross between a llama and an alpaca, called guariso, as large as the llama, but with much more wool. The guanaco and llama have also been known to form a cross; but there is no instance of a cross between the two wild varieties,—the guanaco and vicuña. The extremely artificial life of the alpaca, which renders that curious and valuable animal so absolutely dependent on the ministrations of its human master, and the complete domestication of the llama, certainly indicate the lapse of many centuries before such a change could have been effected.
[1146] [Cf. remarks of Daniel Wilson in his Prehistoric Man, i. 243.—Ed.]
[1147] The name is of later date. One story is that, when an Inca was encamped there, a messenger reached him with unusual celerity, whose speed was compared with that of the “huanaco.” The Inca said, “Tia” (sit or rest), “O! huanaco.”