LAKE TITICACA.

The Aymara Indians—Their antiquities—Tiahuanaco—Coati—Sillustani—Copacabana.

The region which is drained by rivers flowing from the maritime cordillera and the eastern range of the Andes into lake Titicaca consists of elevated plateaux, seldom less than 13,000 feet above the sea, which were originally inhabited by the Aymara race of Indians, a people differing in some respects from the Indians of Cuzco and further north, and whose civilization dates from a period far anterior to that of the Incas. Their language is different from the Quichua of the Incas, though evidently a sister tongue, and it is still spoken by the Aymara Indians from Puno to the central parts of Bolivia, including all the shores of lake Titicaca. I did not, however, observe much difference between the Indians of Puno, who speak Aymara, and the Quichua Indians of Cuzco. The men are, perhaps, somewhat stouter; but they are the same race in all essential points.

The lake of Titicaca, the great feature in the region inhabited by the Aymara Indians, is about eighty miles long by forty broad; being by far the largest lake in South America. It is divided into two parts by the peninsula of Copacabana; the southern division, called the lake of Huaqui, being eight leagues long by seven, and united to the greater lake by the strait of Tiquina. A number of rivers, which are swollen and of considerable volume during the rainy season, flow into the lake. The largest of these is the Ramiz, which is formed by the junction of the two rivers of Pucara and Azangaro, and enters the lake at its north-west corner. The Suchiz, formed by the rivers of Cavanilla and Lampa, also flows into the lake on its north side, as well as the Yllpa and Ylave; while on the eastern side are the rivers Huarina, Escoma, and Achacache, all flowing from a low lateral chain, parallel with the great eastern Andes, whose gigantic peaks of Illimani and Sorata form the principal feature of the views from all parts of the lake. Much of the water thus flowing in is drained off by the great river Desaguadero, which flows out of the south-west corner, and disappears in the swampy lake of Aullagas, in the south of Bolivia; and perhaps a greater quantity is taken up by evaporation; for the volume of water which flows in during the rainy season, when the sun travels north, is drunk up again when the tutelar deity of the lake returns, between April and September.[147] Indeed it is evident that the waters are steadily receding, under the combined influence of evaporation and of the sediment brought down by the rivers. Lake Titicaca is very deep in some places, the deepest part being on the Bolivian side; but in others it is so shoal that there is only just room to force the balsas through the rushes. The winds blow from the eastward all the year round, sometimes in strong gales, so as to raise a very heavy sea, during the day-time; but at night they are occasionally westerly. Along the western shore there are acres of tall rushes, and the east winds blow all the dead rushes to the western side, mixing with the living beds, and forming a dense tangled mass. The lake abounds in fish of very peculiar forms, and in aquatic birds.

The principal islands of the lake are those of Titicaca and Coati, near the peninsula of Copacabana; that of Campanario in the east, opposite the town of Escoma, and nine miles from the shore; Soto, also in the northern part, which is said to contain coal;[148] and Esteves, in the bay of Puno, where the patriot prisoners were confined by the Spaniards during the war of independence; besides a small archipelago in the lake of Huaqui.

A very ancient civilization existed on the shores of lake Titicaca long before the appearance of the first Inca of Peru; the principal remains of which are to be found at Tiahuanaco,[149] near the southern shore of the lake of Huaqui. An extensive tract is here covered by huge blocks of carved stone. It was with much regret that I was obliged, by my duty, to give up my intention of visiting these interesting remains. M. de Castelnau mentions two colossal statues of a man and a woman, crowned with a kind of turban; a colossal head and a lizard carved on blocks of stone; a great conical artificial hill; and a monolithic doorway, the upper part of which is covered with very curious sculpture. In the centre there is a figure, probably representing the Sun, and on each side a number of figures all turned towards it, with wings, and sceptres in their hands: those on one side with their heads crowned, and those on the other with heads of griffins, and the bodies adorned with garlands of human heads.[150] All who have visited these ruins consider them to be of a distinct character from those of Cuzco, and other works of the Incas. The stones are more richly carved, and many of them have been united by means of a metal poured into transverse grooves. M. de Castelnau considers that the chief characteristic of Aymara ruins is the minute detail in the carving on the stones, while that of the Incas consists in the grand simplicity of the masonry.[151]

On the islands of Titicaca and Coati there are also extensive ruins, the remains of temples and convents of virgins dedicated to the worship of the Sun and Moon; and Dr. Weddell mentions that there is a kind of phlox on these islands (Cantua buxifolia), its very elegant long scarlet flower being called by the Aymara Indians the "flower of the Incas."[152]

Although I was unable to visit either the ruins at Tiahuanaco or those on the islands, I found time to examine ruins of the same character on the shores of the lake of Umayu near Vilque, where the great cemetery of the chiefs of the Aymara tribes of the Collao appears to have been. These ruins are at a place called Sillustani, on the north side of the lake of Umayu, where a high rocky table-land juts out so as to form a peninsula, which is literally covered with places of sepulture. Four of them are towers of finely-cut masonry, equal to that of Cuzco, with the sides of the stones dovetailing into each other. On climbing up the steep rocky path which leads to the table-land, the first on the right-hand side is perched on the very edge of the northern precipice. Half of it is destroyed, the other half is of well-cut stones, with a broad rounded cornice near the summit, and a vaulted roof, part of which remains entire. In the interior, near the foundation, there is a vaulted chamber entered by a small aperture, and full of human bones. The rest of the tower was filled up with small stones and earth, leaving a narrow shaft which ascended from the chamber to the summit, down which the bodies may have been lowered into the chamber.

On the left there is another smaller tower of exactly similar construction. Further on, and near the verge of the southern precipice, there are two other towers close together. One is thirty-six feet high, and built of the same well-cut masonry, with a cornice and vaulted roof, and a great lizard carved in relief on one of the stones near the base, which measures six feet by three.[153] The other tower was apparently exactly similar, but it is now in a very ruinous state.

Besides these more remarkable edifices, the table-land is covered with other towers of rough unhewn stone and earth, and there are the remains of two square edifices built of cyclopean stones. The fallen parts of the towers were covered with masses of bright yellow compositÆ called suncho, and a purple solanum; and they were frequented by the creepers called haccacllo, little green paroquets, a small quail called pucupucu, and the little ground-dove cullca; numbers of biscache rabbits burrowed in the ruins, while two or three lordly coraquenques soared in circles over the table-land. After carefully examining the old towers of Sillustani, I passed the night in a very small hut, close to the lake of Umayu, the waters of which were smooth as glass, an island in the centre, and blue ranges of mountains capped with snow in the distance. To get into the hut it was necessary to go on hands and knees, the doorway being only three feet high, with a hide door stretched on a wooden frame. The hut was built of rough stones and thatched with barley-straw; but inside there was a hospitable welcome and good cheer: the old Indian who dwelt there, and his young daughter, providing excellent boiled potatoes, cream-cheese, and fresh milk.

The ruins of Tiahuanaco, and on the islands in the lake, and the towers of Sillustani, are the principal remains of ancient Aymara civilization. Nothing is known respecting the people who raised these imperishable monuments, except that, in the middle of the eleventh century, a man and woman, declaring themselves to be children of the Sun, are said to have first appeared on the shores of the great lake, and, marching north, to have founded the empire of the Incas. The circumstance that Manco Ccapac, the first Inca of Peru, originally appeared in the country of the Aymaras, has led to the belief that he was himself a chief of that nation; but I am more inclined to the opinion that he was one of a band of adventurers who had been brought from Asia, or her vast archipelago of islands, by the westerly winds of the South Pacific, and the southerly breezes of the coast, to the port of Arica; that he thence made his way to the banks of the great lake, where he became indoctrinated in the religion of the people; and that, for some reason, he continued his wanderings, until he finally collected a sufficiently numerous following to found an independent state at Cuzco. It seems certain, from emblems found carved upon the ruins, and from tradition, that the worship of the Sun and Moon was established amongst the Aymaras for ages before the conquest of their country by the Incas of Cuzco.

It was not for several generations after the foundation of the empire of the Incas, that their conquests were extended over the Aymara nation of the Collao; and it was not until about the middle of the eleventh century that the country on the shores of lake Titicaca became part of the great empire whose centre and capital was at Cuzco. From that time the islands of Titicaca and Coata, and the peninsula of Copacabana, became the most sacred and venerated spots within the dominions of the Incas; as the localities where their great progenitor Manco Ccapac was believed to have made his first appearance.

Copacabana means "the place of a precious stone," copa being a precious stone, and cavana a place where anything is seen.[154] A rock called Titicaca gave its name to the island and lake: titi being Aymara for a cat, and caca a rock, for on this rock a cat is said to have sat with fire shooting from its eyes.[155] In Quichua titi means lead. On this rock, which is at the west end of the island of Titicaca,[156] there was an altar where the Aymaras adored the Sun, and near it there were three idols joined in one, called Apu Ynti (the Chief Sun), Churip Ynti (the Son's Sun), and Yntip Huauqui (Brother of the Sun). The Inca Tupac Yupanqui (A.D. 1439-75) founded a palace and a village about half a league from the rock, and established a convent of virgins there.[157]

The island of Coata, a league to the eastward of Titicaca, was dedicated to the Moon, the name being derived from Coyata, the accusative of Coya, a queen; the Moon ranking as wife to the Sun. The ruins of the Accla huasi, or convent of virgins, on Coata island, are 120 feet long, the interior being divided into numerous cells, with rows of niches in the walls. They are now overshadowed by queÑua-trees, whose dark foliage adds to the sombre melancholy of these silent memorials of the past. On both the islands there were, in the time of the Incas, large establishments of Virgins of the Sun, who were divided into three grades, according to their beauty. The most lovely were called Guayruro; the next Yurac Aclla, or white maidens; and the plain ones Paco Aclla, or beast maidens. Each grade was governed by a Mamacona or nurse, and an Apu-panaca or governor lived near the convent, who guarded it, and supplied its inmates with provisions. The occupations of the virgins were weaving, embroidery, and brewing sacrificial chicha, to be poured out on the altar of the deity.[158]

After the conquest, the Spanish Viceroys handed over the province of Chucuito, and the islands in the lake, to the Dominican friars, who succeeded in introducing far grosser and more degrading superstitions amongst the Indians than they had ever practised on the islands of Titicaca and Coata; and in establishing, on the adjacent peninsula of Copacabana, a shrine, the pretended sanctity of which attracted devotees and rich presents from all parts of Spanish America.

Its origin appears to have been as follows:—A member of the family of the Incas, named Francisco Titu Yupanqui, not having money enough to buy an image of the Virgin for his church, painted a very bad picture, and the cura, Antonio de Almeida, either to please the Indian, or because there were few images or pictures in the country, allowed it to be placed near the altar. But the next cura, Antonio de Montoro, seeing that it caused more laughter than devotion, ordered it to be put in a corner of the sacristy. The poor artist then went to Potosi to learn to paint, and, after much labour, he succeeded in completing a picture which, the moment it was placed in the church at Copacabana, began to work miracles. It was set up in 1583, and the Inca painter died in 1608. The first thing the picture did was to banish all devils out of the province, and to cure many Indians of their diseases; and its fame became so great that in 1588 the Count of Villar, viceroy of Peru, solemnly delivered it to the care of the Augustine friars by a royal edict. Between 1589 and 1652 it is said to have performed 186 miracles. One Alonzo de Escote, for favours received, saved up money for the purpose of giving the Virgin a lamp, and at length he presented the richest then to be found in the Spanish colonies, twenty feet long, with sockets for as many candles as there are days in the year, all of solid silver. Even as late as 1845, when Dr. Weddell saw the church, it was very richly gilt.

"Other images," says Father Calancha, "in Europe and Asia perform miracles in their own towns or provinces, but this picture of Copacabana performs them all over the new world, and in parts of Europe!"[159]

Thus the Spanish conquerors supplied the Aymara Indians of the shores of lake Titicaca with an object of devotion in the shape of this old picture; which was to replace their former simple worship of the Sun and Moon on the sacred islands of the lake. It will be interesting to examine briefly the way the Spaniards treated the people they subjected, in other respects, and to glance at the kind of government which they substituted for the mild rule of the Incas.

The forefathers of the present Aymara Indians established a civilization of which we have no record save the silent evidence of those cyclopean ruins which have just been described. Subsequently, for nearly four centuries, from the middle of the twelfth to the sixteenth, they formed a part of the empire of the Incas, and their land was then called Collasuyu. During this period the Incas followed their constant policy of superseding the language of the conquered land by their own more polished Quichua; and they so far succeeded that the Aymara, which once extended and was spoken all over the Collao, as far as the pass of Ayaviri, on the road to Cuzco, has been entirely superseded in all parts north of Puno by the Quichua, and is now only spoken between Puno and La Paz, and farther south. Nevertheless the people enjoyed a long period of tranquillity and prosperity during the happy rule of the Incas, and the population continued to increase. With the introduction of Spanish rule a blight fell upon them: and we shall now see how the beneficent laws of the sovereigns of Castile were administered by their unworthy servants.