Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIV.djvu/158

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

150 QUICHUAS QUTLLWORT Alvarado, and the subjugation of the Quiches was completed. The ruins of the city of Quiche, described by Mr. Stephens, attest the grandeur and power of this people, and give a fair support to the early accounts of their num- bers. The district which they occupied is the best populated portion of Guatemala, and is al- most purely Indian, the ancient language being still in general use. The people are described by Arthur Morelet as "an active, courageous race, whose heads never grow gray, perseve- ring in their industry, skilful in almost every department of art, good workers in iron and the precious metals, generally well dressed, neat in person, with a firm step and indepen- dent bearing, and altogether constituting a class of citizens who only require to be better edu- cated to rise equal to the best." Their language is regarded as a purer dialect than either the Kachiquel or Zutugil, with which it is com- pared by Fray Ildefonso Flores, in his Arte de la lengua Kachiquel (Guatemala, 1753). Much has been done recently for a better knowledge of this people by Brasseur de Bourbourg, es- pecially in his Grammaire de la langue Quichee mise en parallele atec tea deux dialectes Cakchi- quel et Tzutuhil, avec un vocdbulaire, servant d 'introduction au Rdbinal Achi, drame in- digene (Paris, 1862), and Popul Voh, le litre tacre et les mythes de Vantiquite americaine, avec lea litres heroiquea et historiques de Qui- che (1861). Ql'ICIH'AS, the dominant people in the em- pire of Peru under the incas, who made their language the general one of their territory. The Quichuas extended from Lake Titicaca to Quito, and toward the coast to the territory of the Ohinchas and Yuncas. The Aymaras, ex- tending from Lake Titicaca to what is now the southern limit of Bolivia, were first reduced by the Quichuas under the incas. The Qui- chuas are gay, cheerful, energetic, and under the wise sway of the incas seem to have risen rap- idly in many arts. They were assiduous culti- vators of the soil; maize and other grains raised in Titicaca were sent to all parts of the empire as sacred presents, and the inca himself gave an example of the honor of agriculture. They wove and spun the wool of the llama, vicufla, and alpaca ; they worked mines of gold, silver, and copper; built suspension bridges; erected adobe houses with gables, niches, and arches, and temples of the same material or stone, cutting and fitting the blocks with an accuracy and finish that cannot be excelled; made sterile tracts productive by a wise and ex- tended system of otequ'ias and aqueducts, and also by excavating till moisture was reached. In astronomy they had not reached as high a degree as the Mexicans; and in literature, though preserving records mainly by quipus or knotted cords, they cultivated poetry, and had dramas as well as touching songs that won the admiration of the Spaniards. The incas claimed to descend from the sun, and introduced the worship of that luminary. They reduced the Chancas and Huancas, apparently intrusive eastern tribes, and then attacked the Yuncas, the people of the coast, whose capital was at Chimu near Trujillo, and who worshipped Pa- chacamac, creator of the world, of whom there was a famous idol and temple at the place that still bears the name, the god Rimac, who had a famous oracle near Lima, and other deities. After a long and bloody war the inca Capao Yupanqui overthrew Chuqui Manca, king of Chimu, and reduced the Yuncas. They were compelled to accept the sun worship, but the inca allowed the temple of Pachacamac to stand, as its fame was spread through most of South America. There are remnants of the Yuncas still retaining their language at Moche, Eten, &c. ; it is entirely different from the Quichua. The priests of the sun dressed in white, and practised celibacy and fasts ; near each temple was also a convent of virgins of the sun. The men wore woollen tunics and leggings, the women long skirts and short cloaks, joined by gold, silver, or copper clasps. The incas were distinguished by the llautu, a fillet with a ball descending between the eyes. After the Span- ish conquest the Indians lost much of the arts they had gained, and retrograded generally. A desperate effort was made by the Quichuas in the last century to recover their freedom, but their leader, Tupac Amaru, a descendant of the incas, was taken and torn in pieces by horses in the plaza of Cuzco in 1780. There is a series of grammars of the Quichua, beginning with that of Fray Domingo de San Tomas (Valla- dolid, 1560), and coming down to Markham, "Contributions toward a Grammar and Dic- tionary of Quichua" (London, 1864). Ollan- tay, a Quichua drama, and several songs of the hararecs or bards, have been published. QUICKSILVER. See MEROCRY. QUIETISM. See MOLINOS. <jl II.PI I Ml, or kilimanr, a town and military station in the Portuguese territory of Mozam- bique, on the E. coast of Africa, situated on the left bank of the river Quilimane, the N. arm of the Zambesi, 12 m. from the sea, in lat. 17 45' S., Ion. 36 44' E.; pop. about 12,000. It is irregularly built, some of the dwellings being of brick, some of mud, and many of reeds and grass; but there are gardens, with orange and cocoanut trees, about many of the houses. Its principal trade is the export of slaves. The Portuguese garrison consists of a commandant, a few Europeans, and about 50 native troops. Quilimane is one of the very few places on the Mozambique coast actually occupied by the Portuguese, but it is very un- healthy and fast decaying. QUILLWORT, a genus of cryptogamic plants so called from having some resemblance to a bunch of quills ; they are mostly aquatics, and being evergreens, Linnanis called the genus isoetes (Gr. ICTOJ, equal, and frof, year); this is placed by some botanists in the family of club mosses (lycopodiacece), while others give it the rank of an order. The external appear-