CHAPTER XI
CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE
The history of the people who formed the empire of the Incas, in their earlier development, is well worthy of careful study. Sarmiento's version of what he was told by the Amautas was that the people were broken up into small tribes, living in what the Spaniards call behetria, without any government except in time of war, when a temporary chief, called Sinchi, was elected. But this is a very inadequate and misleading account of what must have been told him. The mountainous nature of the Andean region, cut up by such gorges as those of the Apurimac and the Pampas, led to the formation of numerous separate communities, and this would equally be the state of affairs in the valleys on the coast, which are separated from each other by sandy deserts.
These communities were not without government, as Sarmiento supposed. From remote antiquity they consisted of families, all being related, like the Roman gens. A single community, occupying part of a valley or a limited area, was called an ayllu. It was an organised family something on the lines of the village communities in India. The
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